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Sound
THE INTERNATIONAL FILM MAGAZINE

Issue

The

Films

of

2010

|
Sofia

Coppola

|
Of

Gods

and

Men

|
The

Shop

THE BEST
Around

the
niMS
|
Comer

Len
OF 2010
OUR WRITERS CHOOSE THEIR
Lye
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR
A FEAST OF FILM
DVDs
Essential BFI this Christmas

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The Famous Five

Five Have a Mystery to Solve Five on a Treasure Island

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A ripping adventure based George, Julian, Anne, Dick An inspired collection of

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Famous Five novel shadowy \^ispering Island the pioneering animator

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Five of Tati’s most cherished Regarded by many as The film that brought Jacques
films packaged together with Jacques Tati’s masterpiece Tati international acclaim
a host of extra features Remastered version Remastered version

^ The British
Land of A Transport
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bfi.org.uk/christmas Available from

hmv.com
 Sight&
Sound
January 2011
(incorporating Monthly Film Bulletin)
Published monthly by the BFI

Editorial enquiries
21 Stephen Street London WIT ILN
t: 020 7255 1444
f: 020 7436 2327
w: bfi.org.uk/sightandsound
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Volume 21 Issue 1 (NS)

ISSN 0037-4806 USPS 496-040

CONTRIBUTORS
Tom Charity is program coordinator
at Vancity Theater. Vancouver
Maria Delgado is a critic and
professor of theatre and screen arts
at Queen Mary, University of London

Ian Francis is a writer, curator and

co-director of Birmingham’s Flatpack
Film Festival

Charles Gant is film editor at

‘Heat’ magazine
Ryan Gilbey is the film critic for
‘New Statesman’
Trevor Johnston writes on film for
Time Out’ and the Script Factory,
and is a script consultant for funding
bodies and production companies
FEATURES REGULARS
Edward Lawrenson writes on film
for ‘The Big Issue’ HOTEL CALIFORNIA THE MARK OF KANE
With Sight & Sound's once-in-a
Tim Lucas is the editor of ‘Video [COVER FEATURE!
Watchdog’ and the author of ‘Mario decade Greatest Film of All Time
Like much other past work,
Bava: All the Colors of the Dark’ poll looming in 201 2, David Thomson
Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere is set
Hannah McGill is a film writer based laimches an occasional series of
in the rarefied world of the richand
in Scotland debates about the canon, wondering
unhappy. What do her films - and
Kim Newman is writing an updated whether Citizen Kane will - or should
reactions to them - tell us about the
edition of his book ‘Nightmare Movies’, - retain its top spot 44
perils of fame, asks Hannah McGill 16
to cover the last 20 years of horror
cinema
PLUS Isabel Stevens talks to the MEMENTO MORI
director about capturing the mood Based on the true story of a group of
Tony Rayns has been awarded EDITORIAL
and light of Los Angeles 20 monks in Algeria, OfGods and Men is
the Foreign Ministry of Japan’s
one of several recent films to examine Game on 5
Commendation for services REVIEW OF THE YEAR links between French and Islamic
to Japanese cinema
Nick James introduces the results of
culture. But what really resonates,
RUSHES
Nick Roddick is the author of several annual S&S poll, in which
this year’s
books on cinema says Jonathan Romney, is the film’s Tony Rayns pays tribute to the man
85 contributors from around the
evocation of the monks’ inner state who put Pusan on the map 8
Jonathan Romney is the film critic world pick the top five films they
at ‘The Independent on Sunday’
as they face death 50 Kieron Corless wishes he could have
saw in 2010, and their other movie
Neil Sinyard is head of film studies highlights of the past 12 months 24 seen all the films on offer at this
at the University of Hull year’s Viennale 9
David Thomson is the author of
FREE RADICAL on cultural-niche
Charles Gant
The New Biographical Dictionary
Famous for his experiments animation at the box office 9
of Film’
scratching directly on to celluloid.
New Zealander Len Lye was a re-examines a neglected
Neil Sinyard

who moved between indictment of racial prejudice by

COVER trailblazer
William Wyler 11
the cinema and the art gallery.
Sofia Coppola © Corbis
As a major new exhibition opens, Edward Lawrenson talks to
Ian Francis surveys Lye’s legacy 38 documentarist Marc Isaacs 12

COUNTER CULTURE and DIY

Trevor Johnston asks director

Ernst Lubitsch’s 1940 classic

The Shop Around the Comer fills out
itsromantic-comedy confection with
a moving portrayal of economic
desperation. As the film is rereleased
in UK cinemas, Nick James dissects
the ‘Lubitsch touch’
Next issue
SFX designer Gareth Edwards about
his alien road movie Monsters 13
Nick Roddick analyses the
increasingly solitary experience
of watching film 15
40 LETTERS
The charms of Romeo, the legacy of
Metropolis, Peeping Tom recalled 104

on sale READER OFFERS ^

4 January
2 Sight & Sound Januaiy 2011
1 |
 Welcome. What is it about flawed young genius
entrepreneurs who transform the way we
experience the world, only to find themselves
alone and reviled? As played by Jesse Eisenberg
(left), Facebook’s embattled Mark Zuckerberg is a
Charles Foster Kane for our times - and may yet
also prove an Orson Welles (far left), if his greatest
achievement turns out to be by the age of 2 5. And
just as in the past Citizen KanehsiS triumphed in
our once-a-decade ‘Greatest Film of All Time’ poll
(for which David Thomson starts campaigning on

p. 44), so now the new film about Zuckerberg,

The Social Network, has conquered all in our review
of 2010 (p.24). Balancing the old and the new, we
move from that other much-loved 1940s classic
The Shop Around the Comer (p.40) and the trail-
blazing experiments of Ten Lye (p.38) to the LA
cool of cover star Sofia Coppola (p.i6) and OfGods
and Men’s monastic calm, (p.50) Nick James

REVIEWS

FILM OF THE MONTH Loose Cannons/Mine vaganti 70 Somewhere 84 Night of the Demon 97
Monsters 56 Love & Other Drugs 71 Spiderhole 86 Paths of Glory 97
Love Life 72 The Thom in the Heart/ A Room and a Half 97
FILMS Mammoth/Mammut 74 L’Epine dans le coeur 87 Space 1999 - Series i 98
Aftershock/Tangshan Dadizhen 58 Megamind 75 Unstoppable 88 DVD FEATURES
The Be All and End All 59 Miral 75 Waiting for “Superman” 89 Nick James on Marcel Ophuls’s
Broken Sun 60 indelible Hotel Terminus 92
Monsters 76
Burke & Hare 60 Of Gods and Men/
DVDs Kim Newman falls under the spell of a
Animation Express 93 tno ot tnppy 60s Poe adaptations 95
Catfish 61 Des hommes et des dieux 77
Chaplin at Keystone 93 Tim Lucas delves into a study of the
Chatroom 62 On Tour/Toumee 78
LUiiiiiLLCU biiigcr ndiry iNiisbUii
Cuckoo 63 An Ordinary Execution/Une Colditz 98
90 DArtagnan’s Daughter 93
Due Date 64 execution ordinaire (credits only)
BOOKS
Easier with Practice 65 Outcast 79 Eden of the East 98
Tom Charity takes a serious look at
The Edge of Dreaming Paranormal Activity 2 80 The Ghost (1963) 93 the biggest stars of US comedy 100
(credits only) 89 Rare Exports A Christmas Tale/ Grindhouse - 2-Disc Collector’s Maria Delgado refreshed by a study
is

Enemies of the People 66 Rare Exports 80 Edition (Blu-ray) 94 of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu 101
Fathers of Girls 66 RED (credits only) 90 Heimat Fragments: The Women 94 Hannah McGill ponders the sincere
Fezeka’s Voice 67 Saw 3D 81 Last Train Home 94 populism of Danny Boyle 101

For Colored Girls 67 Secretariat 82 Leverage - Series r 98

Fred The Movie 68 Skyline 83 The Magician 95
In Our Name 69 Slackistan 83 Metropolis 96
Mickey One 97

AND ONLINE THIS MONTH The films of 2010 poll in full, plus the best DVDs and online videos
of the year |
new Turkish features ‘Kosmos’ and ‘Majority’, and more www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound
Sight & Sound |
January 2011 3
1
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Editorial

NICK JAMES In our letters page this

month we receive an
“The game is not just vulgar, it’s stupid,”
he says. “Yet we all love games.”

GAME ON upbraiding from one

of our contributors,
the New Statesman
critic Ryan Gilbey,
for not editing
out a phrase in a
review by another
Henry K.
contributor,
Miller, in which he wrote: “ The Social Network
is a classic.” Gilbey argues that “classic” is
“an unhelpful, meaningless term... It isn’t so
very far from "The Social Network is a classic’
to ‘five stars’.” His contention is undeniably
correct: in the context of a review, we should
have curbed Miller’s albeit understandable
enthusiasm because, if the word has any
meaning, it requires time to pass before it can
be bestowed. However, it so happens that
The Social Network is the clear winner of our
annual Best Film poll for 2010, so history may,
in the end, prove Miller right.
Coincidentally, Henry K. Miller has used
our poll’s request for highlights of the year
(see p.32) to quote the recently deceased
literary critic Frank Kermode on the very
giving a kind of instant
subject of canon-forming. “If we want the
monuments, the documents we value, we snapshot of your ‘identity’
must preserve them in spite of their evil
associations,” Kermode wrote. As regular
readers know, canon-forming is the activity
for which this magazine is most renowned -
specifically the twin polls we conduct every
ten years, one asking the world’s critics to list
the greatest films of all time, the other asking
The idea of canon-forming as a game,
however, brings me back to the subject-matter
of The Social Network, and to the use of canons
on the website that the film’s protagonist
Mark Zuckerberg founded. Canons of music
and film are intrinsic to the online social
identities people create. For instance, it so
happens that Ryan Gilbey recently sent me a
Facebook request to play a simple game called
‘mp3 shuffle’. You distribute a list of the first
25 songs selected by your player’s shuffle
mode to 25 friends. Of course, this game
gives - as most Facebook games do - a kind
of instant snapshot of your ‘identity’. That’s
‘snapshot’ as in ‘reductionist first impression’.
Yes, the list is drawn from the music you
chose to download, but the actual decisions
are made by an algorithm. It throws up
exactly the kind of spiky, lucky dip lists
Canons of music and film are
intrinsic to the online social
people create...
identities
that anti-canonicals tend to prefer. But do
these really tell you anything?
In her insightful combined review of
The Social Network and Jaron Lanier’s book
You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto in the
New York Review ofBooks, Zadie Smith s

the world’s directors to do the same. We’re disassembles not only the film but also the |
next due to conduct these polls in 201 2, and Facebook site itself. She draws a lengthy set
|
in this edition David Thomson (see p.44) starts of conclusions, of which I have space only to
|
a new series of debates rolling by questioning reproduce the most obvious: “When a human I

the efficacy of the polls. being becomes a set of data on a website like I

CitizenKane has won this S&SipoW every Facebook,” she writes, “he or she is reduced.
|
time it’s been conducted (1962, 1972, 1982, Everything shrinks. Individual character. |
1992, 2002) except the first (1952), when the Friendships. Language. Sensibility.” i
film hadn’t been seen that widely because of If Smith is right about the canon-based
|
the war. Kane is undoubtedly a monument, exchanges of Facebook, can the same be said
|
and the problems associated with creating about our canon games? I would suggest that
|
monuments to ‘dead white males’ remain the aggregate of careful, individual decisions
|
a live issue. For Thomson, Kane has the made by the many enthusiasts in our polls i
added monumental dimension of seeming offers something else - something more
|
to be immovable. Amidst his forehand complex, organic and human. The true
|
encouragements to vote, our poll activity usefulness of the word ‘classic’, however,
|
comes in for one or two backhand slaps: is something we’ll return to another time. |

EDITORIAL BUSINESS
Editor Credits supervisors Publisher Sight & Sound is published monthly.
In the USA; Periodicals Postage
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Sight & Sound I January 2011 5

1
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*‘We were all young enough to Robert De Niro from 1989, and a

You want to do something that will

last. De Niro told me that he
thought it would be a film people
profile of the young Jodie Foster
from The New York Times’ in
1976 - collected in a new book
would be watching 50 years from on Martin Scorsese’s hellish
talkin’ now... That’s how we came to
and that’s why we didn’t make
it, vision of mid-1970s New York.
But the real lure here is the
any compromises.” lavish full-page reproductions

tome? So said Paul Schrader in an

interview in 1976, talking about
the then recently released
Taxi Driver’, made from his
script.The interview is one of
several archive pieces - among
them a ’Playbc^’ magazine
interview with a very wary
of on-set photographs taken
by Steve Schapiro, including
Scorsese (above) and De Niro
as TVavis Bickle (right).
Taxi Driven Photographs
1^ Steve Schapiro’ is available
now for a purse-busting £450
from Taschen.

Sight & Sound I January 2011 1

 Rushes
FESTIVAL
They call him Mr Kim
Tony Rayns pays tribute
to Kim Dong-ho, who put
Pusan on thefestival map
The 73-year-old Kim Dong-ho retired
as director of Pusan International
Film Festival this year, and much
of the event was devoted to saying
goodbye to him. There were two
big farewell parties, two books
were published (one collecting his
essays on film festivals, the other his
photos of Korean film luminaries)
and continuous tributes were paid.
At the raucous indie filmmakers’
party he was carried around the room
on someone’s back before frugging
to Abba with Juliette Binoche. Britain
is one of the few countries Mr Kim
hasn’t yet conquered (PIFF’s dates
have clashed with the London Film
Festival’s for some years), and so
the resonance of his departure will
be lost on most readers of S&S.
But it bears explaining, since
Mr Kim has played an incalculable
part in the growth of his festival
and the rising international profile
of Korean cinema.
Nobody expected much from PIFF
when it was launched in September
1996. The inaugural festival was
not too ambitious, confined to the
working-class Nampo-dong district,
close to the city’s fish market (foreign
guests were bussed in from luxury
hotels in faraway Haeundae), with
the films screened in a row of dingy
fleapits clustered in one narrow
street. But it was an instant, runaway
success, largely because students
flocked from all over the country
and packed every screening, and
Kim Dong-ho made it memorable for
the filmmakers and other guests by
hosting impromptu sidewalk parties
every night. Much soju was drunk.
PIFF has never looked back;
every subsequent year has seen
an expansion of the programme,
an upgrading of the facilities and
a steady increase in the event’s
importance to regional and
international film industries. A decision too
new permanent home for PIFF is
under construction, scheduled to
open in time for the 201 1 festival.
no exaggeration to say that
It’s
none of this would have happened
without Kim Dong-ho. The festival
was the brainchild of Kim Ji-seok,
then a film-studies teacher at a
college in Busan (as Pusan is now
officially known), who teamed up
with colleagues from the editorial
board of the film-theory magazine
Film Language and a few other friends
and classmates to try to make it
happen. But nothing moved until
8 Sight & Sound January 2011
1 |
Kim Dong-ho was soon recognised
everywhere as the living embodiment
of the spirit of Korean dnema
they invited Kim Dong-ho to become
the festival’s director and figurehead.
I met Kim Dong-ho some
first
20 years ago, when he was head
of the government’s film office,
the Korean Motion Picture
Promotion Corporation. (Later,
under non-military governments, it
evolved into KOFIC, the Korean Film
Council.) He was very different from
other civil servants who held that
post;he privately made it his business
to study film, and often hosted
dinners for students from the Korean
Academy of Film Arts. Since this
was several years before the shift
to democratically elected civilian
governments, such evenings
invariably ended with the drunken
singing of anti-government songs;
I never saw Kim Dong-ho join in,
but he never objected either. Mr Kim
went on to become chief film censor
(he was ‘let go’ after one liberal
many) and chairman of
an educational cable channel before
the boys from Busan came calling.
As PIFF’s director, his unrivalled
political and business connections
brought in the grants and
sponsorship needed to grease the
festival’s wheels. (It helped that the
founder of Daewoo was his classmate
in primary school.) And the late-night
binges of his informal ‘Tiger Club’ -
members include Thierry Fremaux,
Simon Field and the directors Hou
Hsiao-Hsien and Nonzee Nimibutr
- became the stuff of legend, as did
his ability to bounce back into action
each morning after. He began his
non-stop programme of travelling
to other festivals around the world,
sometimes to sit on juries, and was
soon recognised everywhere as a
living embodiment of the spirit of
Korean cinema - the modem
equivalent of the late Madame
Kawakita Kashiko, who represented
Japanese cinema so effectively
throughout its glory years. Back
home he oversaw the launching
of expansionist initiatives (a project
market; the Asian Cinema Fund;
the Asian Film Academy) designed
to consolidate PIFF’s growing status
- and to give it first claim on films it
helped get made. Meanwhile the city
of Busan reinvented its infrastmcture
to meet the festival’s needs (a new
subway line was built, a new bridge
spanned Gwangan Bay) and became
vastly more cosmopolitan and
sophisticated in short order.
PIFF is unlikely to turn into a
festival where the world’s A-list
directors want to launch their films
it premieres are mostly
(the titles
Asian genre and indie movies), but
Mr Kim has made it the capital of
networking for East Asian cinema.
In 2009 Lee Myung-bak’s paranoid
right-wing government targeted
it imagined to be
cultural institutions
hotbeds of dangerous lefties, but PIFF
emerged unscathed. Kim Dong-ho’s
legacy is a festival strong enough
withstand economic downturns
and political attacks. He deserves
the happiest of retirements.
IN PRODUCTION
# Laurent Cantet, the French
director of *The Class', 'Time Out',
'Going South' and 'Human
Resources', is to adapt Joyce
Carol Oates's 1993 novel 'Foxfire:
Confessions of a Girl Gang'.
# Sono Sion, the Japanese
director of such bizarre films as
'Suicide Club', the four-hour long
'Love Exposure' and this year's
'Cold Fish', looks set to attract
more controversy with 'Guilty
of Romance', a sexually explicit
story that begins with the
discovery of a woman's body
that has been cut in half and
attached to a mannequin.
# Wes Anderson has cast
Bruce Willis, Edward Norton,
Tilda Swinton, Frances
McDormand and his regular
collaborator Murray for
Bill
his next feature, 'Moon Rise
Kingdom'. It takes place in a
New England town In the late
1960s and follows events after
two young lovers run away. The
script has been co-written by
Anderson and Roman Coppola.
# Stephen Frears is to adapt
Beth Raymer's gambling memoir
'Lay the Favourite', about a
woman who gets involved with
a group of older maths whizzes
who rig the sports books in Las
Vegas. Rebecca Hall and Bruce
Willis are reportedly starring.
# James Marsh, the British
director of 'Man on Wire' and
the '1980' segment of the
'Red Riding Trilogy', has cast
Rebecca Hall and Guy Pearce In
his upcoming adaptation of Tom
Bradby's novel 'Shadow Dancer'.
Hall will play a one-time IRA
agent turned MIS informer.
# Bruce LaBruce, the Canadian
director of such underground
hits as 'Hustler White' and this
year's 'LA. Zombie', is the subject
of a documentary, 'The Advocate
for Fagdom', by Angelique Bosio.
It includes interviews with John
Waters, Gus Van Sant, Harmony
Korine, Richard Kern and others,
and is being tipped for inclusion
in February's Berlinale.
# Baz Luhrmann's long-rumoured
adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's
'The Great Gatsby' looks more
certain after it was announced
that Carey Mulligan has been
cast as socialite Daisy Buchanan.
Mulligan would Join Leonardo
DiCaprio as Gatsby and Tobey
Maguire as Nick
Carraway. Asked
about the project,
Luhrmann (pictured
left) said there O
are "a few
still
to elements that
feel need to
I
a
be resolved".
 FESTIVAL

All you can eat

Kieron Corless wishes that he i
claustrophobic interiors where three
I
militants hatch political plots that
could have seen all thefilms remain shrouded in murk for the
I

on the menu at the Viennale I

There are two sure signs of a smartly
programmed film festival - panic and
regret: panic on arrival, when you
ransack the catalogue and realise
how little of its glittering selection
you’ll see in the few days you’re there;
regret on departure, for the rarities
you missed and may never see again,
at least on a big screen. The Viennale
scores stratospherically high on both
axes - indicative, of course, of many
rapturous moments in-between.
Never a festival to neglect the
medium’s history, two of the
retrospectives and tributes at this
year’s Viennale kept drawing me
obsessively, part of their kick being
the opportunity to flit between
vastly different sensibilities, one
high European, the other abrasively
lowbrow American. For the first,
French cinematographer William
Lubtchansky’s recent death was
marked by 12 screenings of
phenomenal range in tone and
texture, including Rivette’s Meny-Go-
RoundiigSj), Straub-Huillet’s Class
Relations (igS4), and losseliani’s
La Chasse aux papillons (iggi).
The films of pulp poet Larry
Cohen, lovingly assembled and
curated by Olaf Moller, were an
ecstatic counterpoint, thanks in
I Silent night: ‘Contactos’ brings to
I
I part to the great man’s introductions:
I
ofTthe-cuff torrents of witty, selT
I deprecating anecdotage that didn’t
I even cease when the lights went
I
down. As the sponsors’ logos flashed
I up, that now-familiar Brooklyn drawl
I came from the back: “I didn’t direct
I
Cohen’s films felt hard wired
this bit.”
I
into the American unconscious, the
i
stand-outs for me being Itis Alive
I
(T974), about a monster baby and
i
especially his first directorial
i
Bone (igyi), a scalding black comedy
i
about a black interloper into a rich,
I
white couple’s Beverly Hills home. It
I showed a maverick talent stretching
i its wings in an era congenial to such
life the claustrophobia of the Franco regime
adventurousness. The script was
often laugh-out-loud funny and
the performances pitch-perfect,
giving full rein to surges of
unpredictable emotion.
Another highlight was Paulino
Viota’s Contactos (igyo), a legendary
but until recently virtually
impossible-to-see Spanish film
clandestinely at the fag end of the
Franco era and once described by
feature Noel Burch (at the festival with his
new film The Forgotten Space, co-
directed with Allan Sekula) as “one
of the most important films of 70s”,
a judgement I’d endorse unreservedly.
The film is shot predominantly in
viewer; Viota has spoken of his
i attempt to capture the oppressive
I silences of the Franco regime by way
I of the formal strategies of Viennale
i favourites Straub-Huillet. That should
I
give a sense of its mesmerising
remoteness and strangeness - at
times, ContactossQQmed like a
mysterious, fascinating object fetched
up from another planet.
The ongoing dynamism of German
cinema was represented by striking
new works from the likes of Klaus
Wybomy, Rudolf Thome and Maria
Speth, but my favourite was Thomas
Arslan’s first genre foray, Im Schatten
(In the Shadows), made from his own
script. It’s as taut and hard-nosed a
crime thriller as you’ll see, clearly
under the influence of Melville’s
Le Cercle rouge in its close attention
to the mechanics of crime. Tellingly,
allthe action seems to happen in the
anonymous non-places of late capital.
There are no innocents in its
postlapsarian, money-driven world,
made although you can’t help but feel a
twinge of sympathy for its ex-con
protagonist Trojan (brilliantly
incarnated by Misel Maticevic)
in a perfectly weighted final
scene in which he battles to avoid
a swift return to prison. Hopefully
someone will pick Im Schatten up
for UK distribution.

THE NUMBERS

Drawing audiences Arthouse animation

at UK box office

Charles Gantfinds animation I

such as Persepolis and Waltz with i
‘There’s definitely a following for Film Year Gross 1
; Bashir hdiVQ come along targeting i
Mariscal,” says Spector ‘A lot of Spirited Away 2003 £1.010.818
‘Chico S' Rita’ goingfor adult ;
discerning adult viewers. people wanted to see his first film.
A Scanner Darkly 2006 £995.867
I

When it came to distributing Then we’ve looked at various target Persepolis 2006 £902.651
cultural-niche audiences I

Chico S' Rita, CinemaNX had

the UK’s audiences: art, animation, design, The Illusionist 2010 £892.352*
I
I

Ten years ago, animated features plenty of successful game plans to architecture, Spanish and Latin Howl’s Moving Castle 2005 £851.570
I
I

targeting adult audiences were study; it plumped for the exact same American, and music. We’ve done a Ponyo 2010 £771.843
i
j

few and far between. This autumn late-November release date as Waltz I lot of work with those communities.” Belleville Rendez-vous 2003 £740.726
I

alone, however, we’ve had four of with Bashir. However; the company’s Unusually, CinemaNX booked ads in Waltz with Bashir 2008 £704.249
I I

them: The Illusionist, A Town Called i

distribution boss Gemma Spector is I
Time Out magazine in not just the *still on release

Panic, Mary and Max and now i

cautious about overemphasising I Film section, but also Art and Music,
Chico & Rita, a Cuban musical i
comparisons. “I think the audience I
and this multi pronged approach has I example, showed here in both
love story coming from Spanish I
does differ because Chico S Rita is I been reflected in the festival strategy I
dubbed and original-language
Oscar-winner Fernando Trueba I not heavily politically themed,” I Rather than risk getting lost in a large I
versions. Chico S Rita opted not
and acclaimed designer-illustrator- i
she says. “It’s bright and vibrant I
UK film festival, the ambition has I to go down that route. “It’s tricky
artist Javier Mariscal. I and a very loving, sensuous film, I
been to make a big noise at events I
since all the songs are in Spanish,”
Maybe it’s the Pixar effect having I and amazingly musical. It obviously ;
such as the London Design Festival, I says SpectOT ‘And when 1 spoke
made big-screen cartoons a I straddles the Cuban revolution, ;
Cine Cuba, Bradford Animation I
to exhibitors about it, the feeling
destination of choice for audiences j
but I don’t think the focus is heavy ; Festival, onedotzero and the London I was that they would possibly
of all ages - and with the boundaries i
on political history” ;
Latin American Film Festival. I
do it as an option in a few sites,
increasingly blurring between I While aiming generally at upscale While UK audiences are resistant I
but generally they felt that the
animation and live action - it’s not 1
viewers, CinemaNX is marketing the ;
to dubbing, animation can be an I audience always wanted to see
so surprising that arthouse titles I film to a number of discrete niches. : exception to the rule. Persepolis, for 1 it in its original language.”

Sight & Sound I Januaiy 2011 91

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 Rushes
LOST & FOUND

Odd one out

With his controversial and I
LB. Jones refuses to run and his
I
courage leads directly to his brutal
racially chargedfinalfilm murden A black youth (Yaphet Kotto)
I

‘The Liberation ofLB. Jones’, I

who renounces violence midway
through the film returns at the end
William Wyler confounded j

j
to exact a vengeance more sadistic
critics and audiences alike, I
than the one originally planned.
In his last interview before his
says Neil Sinyard
I
death,Wyler told his daughter
The title of William Wyler’s final I Catherine that he had aimed the film
film, The Liberation ofLB. Jones, is as I at a white audience who he hoped
ironic as that of his most famous I
would be embarrassed and enraged
work, The Best Years of Our Lives [
by what he depicted. Perhaps he
(T946): LB. Jones’s only liberation j
succeeded too well. In the immortal
will be in death. I
phrase of Wyler’s former employer
Many critics were taken aback I Sam Goldwyn, the public stayed
by this extraordinary film when it j
away in droves. Its picture of a
was released in 1970. “Surprising”, I conflicted America might have struck
“ferocious” and even “sickening” I
too many raw nerves in a covmtry still
were among the adjectives most I
reeling over the assassinations of
frequently employed. Variety I
Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther
dismissed it as “an inter-racial I King, a divisive war in Vietnam -
sexploitation film”, whereas Andrew 1
and the departure from the White
Sarris thought it remarkable. Coming I
House of another LB J.
so soon after successful liberal films The film seemed then to fall off the
that close on a note of racial harmony, I
critical map, being displaced by black
such as In the Heat of the Night (igGf) 1 VSendetta: LB. Jones (Roscoe Lee Browne, right) is silenced by racist cops I
American filmmakers with their own
and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner I
visions of the black experience. To
(1967), the film’s pessimism must i Anthony Zerbe are the pick of a fine I
the best of my recollection, it has not
have seemed totally unexpected. j
cast, Zerbe in particular excelling I
It^ the fiercest I been shown on terrestrial television
Even more surprising was the fact as the wretched cop who has a here for over 20 years and has yet
that this unremittingly grim film was 1 modicum of conscience writhing I
indictment of racial I

I
to be given a proper DVD release.
made by Hollywood veteran William I uncomfortably beneath his surface prgudice ever to I
As a huge fan of Wyler’s work,
Wyler, the most honoured of all I bigotry. A scene between Zerbe and
I
I saw the film on its UK release
come out of a major
I

American directors, but one whose I

Brown across a breakfast table, in I
I playing as second feature to Irvin
critical reputation had fallen which the cop tries to pressure the Kershner’s adult comedy Loving
Hollywood studio
I
I

dramaticily during the heyday of I undertaker into dropping the divorce, ;

I (another fine, forgotten film that

auteurism. His films were dismissed is an especially fine example of I
warrants rediscovery). I was with
as cold and impersonal, but LB. Jones I
Wyler’s mise en scene. Brown’s stillness j
distance by its blind owner, as the two j
a friend who was so distressed by it
is hot and impassioned. The late, j
reflects the character’s obstinacy, i
policemen silently survey the result I that she never stayed for the main
great Robin Wood uncharitably I while Zerbe’s nervous pacing and his I
of their night’s work. i feature and never accompanied me
dismissed Wyler’s work as I
command the cinematic
inability to In some ways, the film’s most I
to the cinema again. For me its power
“archetypally bourgeois”, but there’s I
space eloquently suggest the j
original aspect is its structure. Wyler I
remains undiminished. In the era of
nothing bourgeois about this film’s I policeman’s innate weakness. I
sets up genre expectations of the I
Obama’s America, it surely deserves
rage against white supremacists. The most powerful sequence is j
liberal Hollywood movie that he I
reclamation as the fiercest indictment
LB. Jones (Roscoe Lee Browne) 1
the ten-minute chase of Jones across a i
then ruthlessly dismantles. Far from I of racial prejudice ever to come out
is a wealthy black undertaker in a 1
jimkyard by two policemen intent on I
revealing a warm humanity under I
of a major Hollywood studio. For
small Tennessee town seeking !
silencing him before he gets to court. i
the gruff exterior, Lee J.
Cobb’s lawyer I cineastes too it might give a fresh

divorce from his young wife, who I

is having an affair with a white
policeman (Anthony Zerbe). When
Brown’s wife contests the divorce,
the white lawyer (Lee J. Cobb)
representing him begins to get cold
feet because it means the name of
her lover will come out in court,
jeopardising race relations and the
policeman’s career. The events that
follow uncover a procession of sexual
and legal hypocrisies and outrages
by which blacks are oppressed by
whites in that community.
Everything builds to a violent
climax involving two murders and
mutilations. In both cases, the guilty
perpetrator escapes unpunished.
One would expect a Wyler film to
be well acted; he had, after all, guided
more actors to Oscar-winning
performances than any other director.
Roscoe Lee Browne, Lee J. Cobb and
I can think of few more desolate and i
becomes more deeply compromised I
perspective on Wyler who, right
I
disturbing images in all cinema than 1 and contemptible in his selective I to the end of his career, was trying
;
the sequence’s final overhead shot I morality. Lee Majors’s young lawyer, I
out new things and vigorously
;
of Jones’s murdered body hanging I
seemingly a character likely to rectify I
denoimcing injustice. But be prepared
I
by a hook next to that of a dead dog, I
wrongs, walks out of the situation j
to be shocked: it makes To Kill a
I
which is being called foiiomly in the I with righteous but impotent anger I Mockingbird look like Mary Poppins.
I
What the papers said
“Roscoe Lee boil with a tremendous gathering “William Wyler’s cinematic
Browne’s L. B. tension, achieved by Wyler’s reputation notwithstanding,
suggests perfect timing of individual the story... is not much more than
reserves of scenes and his sense of the right an inter-racial sexploitation film.
bitterness camera set-up. With its genuinely There is a pervading commercial
behind a stoic ferocious climax ’L.B. Jones’ adds patness to the f leshed-out script
mask, while up to probably the most powerful, and the overall production.
Anthony Zerbe if not the most sophisticated, However true-to-life the characters
as Willie Joe race-war film the commercial and situations are, many another
has the whining, studios have yet produced.*’ film already has made the ground
nervy petulance of a true sadist. Nigel Andrews, ‘Monthly Film covered almost stereotyped.”
is brought to the
Their vendetta... Bulletin’, December 1970 ‘Variety’, 11 March 1970

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 11 1
 Rushes
PROFILE

The way we’re living

Marc Isaacs observes people
at home and in transitfor his
intimate portraits ofour times,
says Edward Lawrenson
For his latest project, documentary
maker Marc Isaacs has spent the past
few weeks outside a North London
magistrates’ court gathering footage
of individuals caught up in the justice
system. As it happens, the court is ten
minutes from where I live,
I meet Isaacs, I recognise him as the
with a camcorder I’ve
scruffy figure
seen hanging about on the unlovely
stretch of pavement outside
to work alone with a single camera,
Isaacs is intimate without being
intrusive, empathic without being
condescending, and wryly alert to
characters’ foibles and peculiarities
without ever mocking them. Storyville
editor Nick Fraser sees this as an
antidote to the freak-show tendency
of much factual television, as Isaacs
“doesn’t piss on the people he films.”
comment features in an
Fraser’s
interview on a new DVD of Isaacs’s
most recent films. All White in Barking
and when (2007) and Men of the City (2009).
The former is, on one level, an
investigation of immigration’s impact
on the East London borough, but it
it. is less an issue-based work than an

“It’s very raw,” Isaacs says of the
material so far. “We’re talking to
people about things the judge will
never know - so many complicated
life stories open out.” It soimds like
a fascinating project, and it’s
of Isaacs’s attentive brand of
filmmaking that he’s able to find
such a rich source of stories in a
place that a local like me passes
every day without a second glance.
Isaacs’s alert sense of discovery
in otherwise mimdane locations is
evident in his breakthrough film,
Liftiiooj). Setalmost entirely in the
elevator of an East London tower
block, it charts Isaacs’s interaction
with its residents. Made with a deft
feel for atmosphere, Iz/t offers funny,
ensemble character piece. We meet
Dave, an ageing BNP supporter and
grandfather to a mixed-race child;
Susan, a middle-aged white woman
of blustery good humour who is
typical deeply unsettled by a Nigerian family
moving in across the street; and
Monty, an elderly Holocaust survivor
from Poland who is infatuated with
the young Nigerian woman who
you find characters,
cares for him. “As
the whole thing comes alive,” Isaacs
says. “I like to explore themes within I
^All White
in Barking’, about immigration
their situations. I’m not very drawn
to obviously defined stories with a I in East London, is less an issue-based
single narrative line. I much prefer
to react to things that I’m interested
I
work than an ensemble character piece
in and make them cohere later on.”
Deceptively freewheeling. All through a dish of “cow foot”. While so strange it was funny. But I had a

poignant and humane glimpses of
characters in transit, whose stories
build - as much through what
goes left unsaid as what is explicitly
stated - into a study of urban
neighbourliness and solitude. The
setting is cramped and restrictive, but
the attitude generous and expansive.
The geographical focus of Isaacs’s
work has since broadened to rail
in Travellers (2002) and a French
port in Calais: The Last Border {200^).
He chronicles these diverse places
with a rough-hewn vividness and
handheld lyricism, but his foremost
fascination is with people. Tending
White in fact reveals Isaacs’s and his
editor David Charap’s canny sense of
structure. Food, in particular, emerges
as a imifying motif: the closure of a
long-established butcher’s shop
opposite a Halal butcher distils the
tension between white tradition and
more recent ‘ethnic’ culture. Susan
expresses this when she objects to
the ‘exotic’ meals that her Nigerian
neighbour Dickson and his family are
likely to prepare. This prompts Isaacs
to invite her to a dinner party hosted
by Dickson - it makes for deliciously
uncomfortable comedy as Susan and
her husband struggle endearingly
observational, Isaacs is also cheerfully
interventionist, gently probing,
sometimes provoking his subjects to
explore themes he’s interested in. The
dinner party is staged for the film, but
in filming the moment he asks Susan
to participate, Isaacs is transparent.
“I would never have cut to Susan
knocking on Dickson’s door, taking
the viewer into the dinner party
scene out of the blue,” Isaacs explains.
you’d never believe it. Second,
“First,
I came to that idea through a thought
process [reached] during the filming.
I liked Susan, and it was interesting
how she spoke about Africans -
problem: how do you develop her as
a character? Then I came up with the
idea of her meeting her neighbours.
She didn’tknow I was going to do
that, so you could say it’s quite a
cheap trick [to film it] because you’re
bound to get a reaction. But the point
for me is to go further than that.”
In Susan’s case, going further
means discovering she has a
connection to Barking that goes
deeper than any ill-formed prejudice -
a final-reel revelation helps humanise
her and points up Isaacs’s capacious
curiosity and alert sensitivity towards
all his subjects.
His films’ intimate, almost
confessional tone is partly dictated by
technology. Isaacs often records audio
with his on-camera microphone,
which demands a physical closeness
to his contributors. But the deeper
is one of trust, and of using the
issue
camera to allow or encourage his
characters to express themselves in
lessguarded moments. One especially
fine example comes towards the end
of Men of the City. A study of male
workers in the City of London - from
a philosophical street cleaner to an
overworked hedge-fund manager -
the film is, among other things, a
portrait of the sacrifices and possible

12 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |

regrets that accompany many high-
level positions in finance.
After a long career at a top bank,
middle-aged Norman takes early
retirement for a job overseas. Isaacs
joins Norman in his garden in the
suburbs as he enjoys a late-night
smoke. Having already spoken about
the pressure his father put on him to
work in the City, Norman answers
Isaacs’s questions about why he
never had children with a terse
matter-of-factness that is nonetheless
freighted with ineffable discomfort.
“It’s quite fascinating when you
feel you should approach somebody,”
Isaacs says of this final,moving
encoimter with Norman. “You’re
looking at someone and deciding on
their mood, sensing whether they’re
in a kind of ‘filmic space’. Something
happens when you film someone,
a level of performance - 1 mean that
in a very light way. When Norman is
talking about why he never had
children... I’ve set up that situation.
I home after work, sat
followed him
down and had food with him. I knew
I wanted to talk to him about this and
was thinking about the best situation
in which to do it, so I said: ‘Can we
go in the garden? I want to shoot a
scene there.’ I may even say: ‘Just get
yourself into a relaxed state of mind.’
I’ve created an atmosphere where
Norman is almost waiting for a
question and [feels] slightly pensive.
I’ve also said before: ‘If you don’t feel
like answering then don’t’ Most of
the time you have to prime people.”
It’s a technique, I suggest, that
as much to therapy as conventional
journalism. “Probably,” Isaacs laughs,
looking unconvinced, before adding:
“It shouldn’t feel like an interview.
someone’s caught up in their own
headspace, I enter into that; there’s
an atmosphere that’s going on that
you just sort of step into.”
While Men of the City extends
Isaacs’s familiar acute insights into
the interior lives of his characters,
also hismost visually expressionistic
and overtly stylised piece. A sense
of foreboding, of imminent demise,
underlies the image of London: Isaacs
tends to show the city drenched in
a torrential nocturnal downpour,
sequences that carry intimations
of an apocalyptic flood (underscored
by the opening sequence capturing
two men at a bus stop talking about
the end of the world).
This end-of-days atmosphere
proved portentous. During filming,
the 2008 crash occurred, lending a
keening relevancy to Men of the Citys
sceptical view of the benefits of high
finance. To an extent, the same is
true of All White since, two years
after filming there. Barking hosted a
well-publicised challenge by the BNP
to the sittingLabour MP. “We like to
work with filmmakers who belong to
their culture,” Nick Fraser says in his
DVD interview, and Isaacs’s knack for
making films that reflect and express
aspects of contemporary Britain
reveals a filmmaker finely attuned to
the national Zeitgeist. Yet to me, there
is something about Isaacs’s slightly
bemused, even-handed curiosity
towards his characters that suggests
a degree of tolerant detachment,
a sense of perspective that comes
with being slightly on the outside.
“I think you’re right,” Isaacs says
when I bring up my disagreement
with Fraser. “There’s a big part of
me that feels outside, generally.
For instance, when was younger I
I was never a member of any clubs.
Sometimes I try to feel I’ve landed
from another planet and I want to
look at these people and the way
they’re living - the way we’re living
- from a slight distance, so we can
maybe get more clarification. It’s
difficult because it requires a level
of self-analysis that’s complicated
togo into. But there’s a moment that
resonated for me in Men of the City
when Steve the street cleaner says
‘Perhaps I’m just here to observe.’
That’s crucial for what I do.”
'Lifi\ Travellers*, 'Calais:
Frontier*, All White in Barking* and
'Men of the City* are all available on
DVDfrom Second Run
INTERVIEW
Monsters inc.
owes Aliens and romance propel
Gareth Edwards’s superb
low-budget debut ‘Monsters’,
If
says Trevor Johnston
With the funding landscape for
British film currently in a period of
transition (to say the least), Gareth
Edwards stands out like a beacon of
it is independent enterprise. After years
honing his skills in television creating
glossy CGI on BBC budgets, his debut Chemistry lessons: Edwards with Abie
feature ‘Monsters’ mixes extensive
location shooting in Central America, couple to provide instant chemistry.
hundreds of effects shots and Vertigo suggested Scoot McNairy
American leads in a British-financed from ‘In Search of a Midnight Kiss’,
movie that cost so little its producers who sent Edwards a photo of his
and distributors Vertigo have already actress girlfriend (now wife) Whitney
recouped their investment before the Able.‘‘I was really put off by the fact
movie gets its UK release. she was gorgeous,” Edwards recalls,
It helps that the result is a triumph ‘‘because I really didn’t want to make
for multi-talented Edwards - writer, a film with beautiful people. However,
director,DP and production designer. Iwent and stayed with them at their
An original and engaging amalgam apartment for five days, and realised
of road-movie romance, sci-fi fantasy that if could capture even a fraction
I
and political observation set in the of the way they were with each other,
near future, ‘Monsters’ conjures up then I’d really have something.”
an alien-infestation zone on the Indeed, while the CGI fantasy/
US-Mexican border that has been grainy reality play-off will draw
there so long the locals just deal with comparisons with ‘Cloverfield’ and
it. two Yank interlopers caught
For ‘District 9’, it’s the subtle ebb and
in the wrong place at the wrong time, flow of this onscreen relationship
however, the task of getting back thatmakes ‘Monsters’ distinctive
home before the creatures’ annual and The fact that Edwards
affecting.
migration still proves daunting. achieved this shooting on the hoof
“I knew nobody was going to come in Costa Rica and Mexico with almost
and give me a big pile of money,” no crew makes it doubly remarkable.
Edwards says of the birth pangs of “We’d get to a location we’d never
his appealing genre hybrid, ‘‘but I seen before with maybe half an hour
worked out that if I did all the effects to find someone who could speak
myself, I could just about hold out for English to be in the scene,” he recalls.
six me scope to do
months. That gave ‘‘I’d look over at the translator, you’d
about 350 effects shots - not much hear the magic word ‘extraterrestres’
for a CGI-driven movie - so then it and there would be nodding. The real
became all about contrast. When you validation of that approach is the
put something fantastical into a salesguy who haggles with Scoot
scene with no lighting and a roving and Whitney over extortionately
documentary-style camera, that expensive ferry tickets. He’s brilliant,
gives the effects a whole new level of looks like someone in a Sergio Leone
reality and suddenly it’s interesting.” filmand had never acted before.
When Edwards’s short ‘Factory this myth that the magic
‘‘It’s
Farmed’, conceived as a test run, happens when you’re in a room
won the Sci-R Channel’s 48-hour typing a script as a sort of sacred
film contest in 2008, it convinced contract to raise the finance. But
him he had the and technology
skills that’s all changing because computer
to use this creative approach in a graphics now enable you to add any
feature. Enter Vertigo producers Allan sort of production value you need.
Niblo and James Richardson, who That’s gonna radically bring down the
committed to a start date only three cost and hopefully give film-makers
months on. This gave Edwards a new more freedom to shoot stuff without
headache: he didn’t have a script. that pre-approval. The idea surely is
He did have a story - a guy and not to make the films Hollywood can
a girl bond as they traverse alien make, but to do the films they can’t.”
territory to get home - but knowing
The Last that the guerrilla-style, no-budget 'Monsters* is released on
shoot would put the performers on 5 December, and is our Film of
their mettle, he felt he needed a real the Month, reviewed on page 56
sight & Sound |
Januaiy 2011 13 1
 EMPIRE TMIEOUT EVENING STANDARD

WINM'.R
“stunningly serious “beautifully told
and passionate” I
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An Artificial Eye Release artificial-eye.com

 Rushes
MR BUSY
Alone in the dark
From being a communal experience,
watching films has become an
increasingly fragmented one, with
serious implications for the future.
In a distant past, 1 lived in Ireland
when the Celtic Tiger was yet to
whelp. The atmosphere was far from
grim, but it wasn’t what you’d call
liberal. Pubs were for men to drink
stout in; cocktails were unheard
late-night horror movies were where
young people went when they
wanted to be alone in the dark. This
is not to say no attention was paid
to the films, just that something
sufficiently loud or striking had
to happen for several hundred
teenage tongues to be momentarily
disengaged. I still recall one line
that engendered a choice piece of
repartee, even if I don’t recall the
film. The star, I think, was Barbara
Steele, the impressively endowed
doyenne of Italian horror...
sultry
who was bom in Birkenhead. “H is
for Heretic!” intoned the leering priest
as he pressed a glowing brand shaped
with that letter into Barbara’s ample
bosom. “And whore!” came a cry
from the rear stalls, the word being
pronounced, in a Dublin accent, in
two syllables - “whoo-er”. Doubtless
there is a reader out there who will
tell me the name of the film.
Anyway, this happened long
before I became professionally
engaged by - or even especially
serious about - all things generic.
No one had yet dreamed up torture
pom, special were engagingly
effects
amateurish and the most unpleasant
scene I can recall is when Barbara
has a metal mask with nails on the
inside nailed squishily on to her face
in Mario Bava’s Mask of the Demon.
One watched such films as part
of a group, a communion even,
nowhere more so than in the long-
gone Cinema Le Styx in Paris, where
every fitting could be any colour
so long as it was black. This was
in the days when French cinemas
still had (jwyreuses- bad-tempered
ladies who extorted 50 centimes
for pointing their torches vaguely
in the direction of your seat. But the
one at the Styx, while still
her would recognise you if
sous,
you came regularly and welcome
you back. It was like going into your
local pub, but to see a film.
Enough of this nostalgia. I do have
(you knew this, didn’t you?) a more
serious point. What sticks in my
mind about the Dublin Savoy and
the Paris Styx is that the intermptions
were inspired by and directed at the
film, much as worshippers join in
a revivalist meeting with cries of
EVENTS
• After Sebaid - Piace and
Re-Enchantment
the iate,
is a tribute to
great writer WXi. Sebaid.
The weekend-iong event sees
the worid premiere of Grant
Gee's feature-iength essay fiim
'Patience (After Sebaid)’, which
retraces a walk from Sebald’s
book 'The Rings of Saturn’,
and features contributions
from a range of artists and
commentators. Saturday
includes a concert by Patti
Smith, responding to Sebald’s
book 'After Nature’. The weekend
of; also offers the rare chance to
visit Orford Ness, off the coast of
Suffolk, a haunting location that
inspired Sebald’s writing. 28-30
January, Snape Maltings, Suffolk.
Technology puts us instantly in toudi See www.aldeburghxo.uk.
• London Short Film Festival
with the world. We are no longer an returns for its eighth year and
again showcases hundreds of
audience but a series of individuals recent short films from around
tuned to a global chatroom the world. Various venues,
London, 7-16 January.
• Nam June Paik, the great
“Praise the Lord” - interjections emblematic of how we now Korean-American artist,
that do not so much intermpt the consume audiovisual images: performer and composer
proceedings as enhance them. Not not as part of a hermetic narrative, who died in 2006, gets his first
[ so in a modem multiplex. Nowadays, but as part of an enormous flow major UK retrospective this
;
cinema audiences subscribe to a quite of information of which that winter at Tate Liverpool. Works
j
different community Technology narrative forms only a part. from all phases of Paik’s long
I
puts us instantly in touch with the Over the years, the context in and remarkable career are
I
world, but often at the expense of which we have viewed moving represented, from music and
I
inteiTupting our communications pictures has progressively narrowed. television works to robot
I
with the immediate. We are no In the 1 we sat in large, often
930s sculptures and large-scale video
I
longer an audience but a series tiered, audiences. In the 1950s we installations. Tate Liverpool,
i
of individuals tuned to a global began watch them as families,
to 17 December to 13 March.
I chatroom. Seeing Hideo Nakata’s physically separated from but • TV Variety: The BFI Salutes the
I
disappointing movie version of synchronised with several million Palladium celebrates the London
I
Enda Walsh’s play Chatroom in other families. Since the T980S we Palladium, the legendary variety
I
Cannes this year, one was stmck by have used home-entertainment venue - famously used as the
I
how far we have come since it was devices to watch them in smaller location for the climax of
I written. Chatrooms are a thing of the groups, with no one else likely to Hitchcock’s 'The 39 Steps’ -
I past. Chat itself no longer has walls. be watching exactly the same film whose boards have been trod
At a recent press screening at at exactly the same time. But it is by an international roll-call of
I
a preview theatre so small anyone over the past few years that this talent. The season comprises
j
standing in the aisle blocked the fragmentation has become complete, films and programmes honouring
I
projector beam, audience members with many of us now watching the golden age of TV variety.
I repeatedly traipsed down it, mobile films alone on a computer or a Throughout December and
I phones clutched to their ears, images handheld device. From multitude January, BFI Southbank, London.
i
from the film dancing across their to solo in less than a century. • Howard Hawks gets the
I
backs. Either they didn’t want to The implications of this for the complete retrospective
I
disturb fellow viewers (but weren’t film industry are frightening. Outside treatment at the BFI Southbank
I
going to ignore the call or text) or the Hollywood studios and their in the new year. The perennial
i
the signal was too weak in the marketing machines, the problem classics such as 'His Girl Friday’,
i
screening theatre and they needed of sustaining our cinema has not 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ and
I to get outside. Either way, the global been one of production - that can 'To Have and Have Not’ are too
I
connection was more important than be subsidised, supported, relieved numerous to list, but alongside
i
the immediate experience. Even at of tax or otherwise encouraged - them are lesser-seen early titles
expecting press screenings in Cannes, audience but of distribution: how do the films such as 'The Dawn Patrol’ and 'A
I
|
i
members regularly take calls or get seen, where and by whom? And, Girl in Every Port’, the latter with
g
I
answer texts during screenings. above all, how are they paid for? Louise Brooks. BFI Southbank, |
Ifyou want a geezerish reaction In a world of fragmented moving- London, throughout January |
i
here - a yearning for the long-gone picture consumption, we’re still and February.
;
times evinced in my opening groping for an answer to that. Hawks’s Chandler |
j
paragraphs - feel free to add your What we can be sure of is that adaptation 'The |
: own. Although I would personally the trend will not reverse itself. Big Sleep’ (left)
|
I
prefer my viewings not to be This may well not be the last also screens ~
I
interrupted by other people’s you will hear from me on this inan extended ^
i long-distance communications, issue. But I promise to leave run at cinemas |
; what interests me more about the Barbara Steele out of it next nationwide. |
:
phenomenon is that it is clearly time. Nick Roddick I
Like her past work, Sofia Coppola’s
Somewhere’ is set in the rarefied
world ofithe rich and unhappp.
But what do herfilms -and
reactions to them - tell us about the
perils ofifiame, asks Hannah McGill ?

Overleaf Isabel Stevens talks to the

director about capturing the mood
and light ofLos Angeles onfilm
HOTEL
CALIFORNIA ame can do awful things
as Cecil B. DeMille
to a person,
observes in

F
Sunset Blvd. Playing himself and
defending his fictional protegee
Norma Desmond against the charge of
her having been a “monster” at the
height of her notoriety, he says: “A dozen press
agents working overtime can do terrible things to
the human spirit.”
It is with this highly specialised strain of
spiritualdamage that Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere
concerns itself - via a story largely played out
on the very same boulevard, in the celeb-wom
corridors of the Chateau Marmont hotel. Residing
there (as Billy Wilder did for a portion of his career)
TIMEOUT
isJohnny Marco, a beautiful and very famous
Film star Johnny Marco
(Stephen Dorff, above movie star, played by the beautiful and not-that-
left and facing page) famous movie star Stephen Dorff.
attempts to bond with Johnny is not a monster in the Desmond mould,
daughter Cleo (Elle but you can see how he might become one: he is
Fanning, above right)
enslaved by a tedious PR schedule and beset on all

sides by panting groupies, angry ex-girlfriends,

journalists who ask him crushingly dull questions
and anonymous haters who threaten him by text.
His I i-year-old daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning) offers
him a slender bridge back to reality when she
descends on him
an unplanned visit as her
for
mother, Johnny’s ex Layla, heads off on an
impromptu trip. But Johnny has a jaunt of his own
to take, to an awards ceremony in Milan. Cleo, a
singularly adaptable and uncomplaining pre-teen,
comes with him. Since he’s slowed down anyway
by a wrist injury sustained during some standard-
issue drunken debauch, Johnny finds himself
enjoying time with his child, rather than simply
doing his court-ordered duty.
It’s a shift of intent neatly captured in a scene in
which Johnny watches Cleo perform an ice dance
lasting pretty much the full duration of Gwen
Stefani’s syrupy pop number ‘Cool’: at first he looks
antsy and a bit embarrassed; then he seems to get
interested in the artistry of what she’s doing;
finally he just looks proud. It’s a nice, if idealised
distillation of the experience of parenthood.

16 Sight
I
& Sound |
January 2011
Sight & Sound |
January 2011 17
1
 Sofia Coppola Somewhere
^ And in case we miss what’s going on, there are
always Stefani’s lyrics to help us out: “After all that
we’ve been through... 1 know we’re cool.”
Gilded cages
Being cool is not a problem for Sofia Coppola, of
course. Muse of Marc Jacobs’, Louis Vuitton guest
designer, ex-wife of Spike Jonze, friend of Sonic
Youth, and of course daughter of Francis: her
implacable hipster cred is moored as
as securely
her Hollywood pedigree. Somewhere -her fourth
feature film and the recipient of the Golden Lion at
the 2010 Venice Film Festival - honours her
swiftly established traditions by focusing on
the boredom and angst suffered by the ostensibly
privileged. Thematically, Someiu/iere particularly
echoes Coppola’s most critically and commercially
successful outing Lost in Translation, for which she
won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 2003. Both
films are predominantly set in hotels, both note
the loneliness and routine humiliations endured
by celebrities on the road and both locate hope in
a spark of fellow feeling between a jaded famous
bloke and a fresh young girl.
However, other elements are common to all her
films: everyone has lots of languorous leisure time;
no one has to work in the conventional sense (you
do wonder if Coppola actually knows anyone who
has to work in the conventional sense); lasting
contentment eludes everyone, despite all the room
service and so forth; human spirits are damaged.
The Virgin Suicides (iggg) saw suburban teens top
themselves en masse, despite possessing beauty,
material wealth and parental adoration, because of
something to do with “the imprisonment of being
a girl”; Marie Antoinette (2005) portrayed a sweet
featherbrain beguiled by the luxuries of queendom
but thrown by the expectation that she should do
boring old politics in return.
It’s always been tricky to determine just
much irony Coppola intends when she presents
extreme comfort as a cruel and stifling predica-
ment. When, in Somewhere, Johnny places a tearful
late-night distress call to his ex Layla, she has a dry
suggestion for him: “Why don’t you try volun-
teering or something?” Coppola lets us guess how
to read this - is Johnny receiving a rare nugget of
constructive advice from one of the few people
who know him well, or is Layla’s suggestion
intended to exemplify the thoughtless and judg-
mental jabs routinely doled out to the rich by those
who have no sense of their inner pain?
Familiarity with Coppola’s other work rather
suggests the Her central characters are
latter.
uncomforted by the glimmer of their gilded cages
and thus live quite adrift from any sense that their
unusual material security might carry with it the
moral responsibility to give something back. Why
should more be expected of them when they
already weather the daily misery of being looked
at all the time and having too much stuff?
volunteering - that would mean interacting with,
like, people. Who might not be cool! Threatening
18 Sight
I
& Sound |
January 2011
is the mass of humanity that exists beyond one’s
elected coterie: cruel schoolmates in The Virgin
Suicides’, brash Japanese people who keep incon-
siderately speaking in Japanese in Lost in
Translation; horrid, gawping peasants in Marie
Antoinette, brash Italian people who keep inconsid-
erately speaking Italian in Somewhere.
Muddled beasts
The matter of what Coppola might mean by all of
this is complicated by her own status as a child of
fame and wealth, which unavoidably suggests a
own degree of autobiography in her characterisations
of the materially spoiled and spiritually starved.
One imagines that the director has come up
against her fair share of bitterness, envy and exhor-
tations - if not to volunteer, then to be thankful for
what she’s got. (In fact one does not have to
imagine - one can refer to the countless critics and
bloggers who are quick to draw attention to
Coppola’s connections when assessing her work
and the high-level attention that it receives.) But is
she smirking with us at the cloistered self-pity of
her characters, or scolding us for our reductive
assumption that money should bring happiness?
A third option: is she, like Woody Allen and Bill
Douglas and Claude Chabrol, just drawing on her
own life experience? (How deafening the accusa-
tions of let-them-eat-cake condescension would be
if shewere to essay a film about factory workers.)
The trouble is that it’s perilous for the very fortu-
nate to complain, unless it is only to be heard by palate, but amply borne out by the documentary
the rest of the very fortunate. For that poor and evidence. It doesn’t take an exhaustive survey of
huddled majority to whom ‘rich and famous’ is a the rich and beautiful to establish that fame and
distant, dreamed-of realm, missives of dissatisfac- fortune have a singularly poor record at supplying
tion therefrom are either incomprehensible, blind- fulfilment. Great beauty invites exploitation and
ingly irritating or unwholesomely satisfying on objectification; fabulous wealth lures false friends
the level of schadenfreude. Earlier this year. The and yes-men; public recognition brings relentless
Guardian printed an extract from actress Natascha intrusion and gossip. Do first-class travel, fancy
how McElhone’s memoir discussing her experience of threads and unlimited casual sex provide compen-
being suddenly widowed while pregnant with her sation for all that? The fantasies of generations of
third child. A reader wrote in to express, with stargazers insist so, but the mass of tragedy-laden
singular bitterness, the wish that the paper “could superstar biographies would argue otherwise.
have carried a piece on grief that was not about As for the director’s own genetic privilege, it’s no
someone so rich, talented and beautiful”. To that given that what every budding director needs to
reader, McElhone was not entitled to feel sad - her secure lasting credibility is a famous daddy. Ask
high cheekbones and (presumably) nice home Jennifer Lynch, Nick and Zoe Cassavetes or Sofia
furnishings should have compensated her for the Coppola’s brother Roman (producer on Some-
whole dead-husband, fatherless-children thing. A where). No doubt Coppola’s surname opened doors
related brand of vengeful envy drives the celebrity- for her, but it can also be argued that her work has
focused gossip media: awed fascination with fame largely held its own critically despite her breeding,
coexists with prurient delight in the tragedies it in the face of many a resentful commentator who
cannot prevent. The celebrity thus emerges as a would have loved it to be wholly unwatchable.
beast as muddled as some Hieronymous Bosch Still, we don’t learn much about why the pain of
hybrid: part heavenly body, part pariah dog. The Johnny Marco ought to matter to us. Somewhere is
most envied and desired members of society are
also the most harried, belittled and abused. Missives of dissatisfaction
Arguably, Coppola’s films combat this puritan
impulse to punish those to whom much is given. from the rich and famous
They ask us to extend our empathy beyond are either biindingiy
And society’s more obviously damaged cases to those
who are oppressed by the presumption that they irritating or satisfying on
should be in bliss. It’s a contention that’s hard to the ievei of schadenfreude

enjoyably acute about the ludicrous minutiae of
the junket circuit (we see Johnny perched on a box
in order to match the height of his co-star for
photos, and pestered for a contribution to a book
called Workout Secrets ofHollywood Stars), yet the
protagonist himself lacks definition. Johnny is
certainly no Norma Desmond, besotted with the
romance of the movies. He never speaks about his
films, except to remind people he does his own
stunts, and he passes his unread scripts to Cleo for
assessment. Luxury living isn’t exactly his speed
fancy car aside, he lives like a student (albeit
either:
one without money worries). A succession of band
T-shirts testifies to a scratchily authentic punk-rock
past that he either had or wants to pretend he had.
Unlike a Depp or a Pitt or a Franco, Johnny
appears to have no intellectual or creative tribu-
taries feeding his acting, unless you count a fond-
ness for Guitar Hero. His one defining characteristic
is an incontinent sexuality, but we can’t know
whether his sex habit is self-medication for the
discomforts of fame, or his fame a useful means to
indulge a pre-existing appetite. And actually, we
don’t see much evidence for his being a tiger in the
sack: the one time that we see him get a woman
into bed, he falls asleep giving her head. A pair of
privately hired twin pole dancers regalehim with
such coy routines and innocent grins that they
might be regarded less as sex objects and more as
inadequate stand-ins for Cleo’s sunny presence.
In his blank, buff beauty, his childlike indul-
gences and his unfocused dissatisfaction, Johnny
LADIES’ MAN
In Johnny’s world
women are beautiful
objects to be lured into
bed, or a simpering
annoyance to avoid
resembles a Bret Easton Ellis creation (indeed,
he shares his problem of sinister text messages
with the protagonist of Ellis’s Imperial Bedrooms).
Coppola’s characters, however, don’t meet the sort
of monsters that lurk in Ellis’s tales. Johnny might
vaguely suspect that an SUV is following him, but
Coppola resists the notion of larger plots or power
structures influencing her characters’ experiences
(one reason that Marie Antoinette -a film that really
needed some political context behind it - failed to
take flight). There is no such thing as society. There
are only men and women and - according to the
terms of divorce settlements - their families.
Waterworks
Perhaps, after all, it’s not their defence of privilege
that makes Coppola’s films troubling, but this
hermetic quality. The characters’ disconnectedness
creates a torpid emotional climate and, though
they experience bereavements, separations and
bloody peasant revolts, Coppola seems most at
ease when their stronger feelings can be masked by
a bout of tongue-in-cheek exhibitionism or a
languid hipster shrug. Just as sexual passion is a bit
infra dig,spontaneous verbal communication is
unreliable. When they do have something to say,
people miss their moments, are crippled by inar-
ticulacy or self-consciousness, or are drowned out
by the surrounding clamour. Two of Coppola’s key
emotional pay-offs are delivered against serious
auditory challenges: in Lost in Translation, Bob’s
final whispered words to Charlotte exclude the
audience, while in Somewhere]ohnnY offers his late
mea culpa to Cleo over the mad whirr of helicopter
blades. At its best, this style creates a gestural
language that’s both satisfying and emotionally
resonant. The most pleasing parts of Somewhere am
bits of inconsequential business in the hotel room
- Cleo taking pleasure in preparing breakfast,
Johnny ineptly trying to pull the cast off his arm.
And there are more deeply affecting moments -
hold on to your hearts when Fanning executes a
piercingly authentic burst of waterworks. But
restraint is the dominant mode. As in Coppola’s
other films, overt emotion and excessive verbosity
are regarded with suspicion: they’re signifiers of
insincerity,phoney luwiedom, rudeness even.
“What ees the most beautijuhhmg you ’ave done
in Italy?” gushes a bimbo television presenter
when Johnny arrives at his Milan hotel. Politely, he
reminds her that he’s only just landed. On stage at
the awards, he’s mobbed by further bimbos and
made a reluctant participant in their song-and-
dance routine; eye contact with a laughing Cleo
affirms that amid the vulgarity, they know they’re
cool. (A lot of the women in Somewhere are vulgar
or a fact that might be picked up on more if
silly,
Coppola were a man.) Certainly one sometimes
recoils a little from the strain of cooler-than-thou
snobbery in her humour, as with a bug-eyed
caricature of a PR girl who oversolicitously guides
Johnny around and ministers to his needs.
Working with Gus Van Sant’s regular DP Harris
Savides, Coppola enlists a camera style that
is simplicity itself: a fixed viewpoint; long, luxu-
riant takes;no sharp edits. The music- video affec-
tations of previous films - mouth-watering cake
montages in Marie Antoinette, mouth-watering
Josh Hartnett gliding around to Air’s ‘Sexy Boy’ in
The Virgin Suicides- are notable by their absence.
It’s been remarked that after the divided
response to the ambitious Marie Antoinette,
Coppola is playing it safe with Somewhere. Gently
comic vignettes are not exactly risky, and no one is
going to hope that daddy and daughter won’t
reconnect (particularly not the guilty, overworked,
middle-aged dads who make the big decisions in
the film industry). Even that process is a mild one,
since Coppola’s narrative is not aggressive enough
to show a badly fractured relationship or have
Johnny or Cleo undergo major change. Instead, a
slightly flawed but basically loving father has a
nice time with the lovely daughter who he doesn’t
see quite as much as either would like. It’s the plot
of post-divorce weekends the world over, except
that everyone has a slightly sweeter disposition
than in real life.
Perhaps it’s part of Coppola’s project to counter
negative assumptions about celebrity offspring,
but it’s hard to see how much closer-up she can
usefully get to her hermetically sealed, sad
bohemians. For all its throwaway pleasures. Some-
where risks saying altogether too much about itself
with Cleo’s ice dance: a dainty, cold, stiff-limbed
exercise in skimming the surface.
Sight & Sound |
January 2011 19
1
Sofia Coppola Somewhere

A KIND OF SOFTER FEEUNG

Sofia Coppola talks to Isabel Stevens about the glossy, solitary, in-between Los Angeles existence she evokes in ‘Somewhere’

Isabel Stevens: ‘Somewhere’ is your most pared-down, SC: Whenever I start a film, I always have visual
restrained film yet the camera’s often held at a distance references in mind, mainly from photography. For
and there’s not much dialogue. How did you arrive at Somewhere, it was Helmut Newton’s photographs

that approach? that he did around the Chateau Marmont, and

Sofia Coppola: After Marie Antoinette,
about approaching a film in a totally different way,
to try tomake something really minimal. It was
also todo with meeting Harris Savides, the cine-
matographer- we shot a commercial together and
talked about how simply you could make a film,
how simply you could tell a story. So I thought
about that kind of approach when I was writing
the script.
IS: The father/daughter relationship in particular is very
minimal and unsentimental.
SC: I wanted to have a sweet father/daughter
relationship without being too sappy.
I was thinking then other photographers in LA, like my old
photography teacher Paul Jasmin, and Bruce
Weber, who did some of Matt Dillon - 1 looked at
them for the style of this young movie star. I feel
like each of my films has their visual style, but I
think there’s a connection between them because
they come from my own aesthetic. But in this one,
because I wanted it to be so minimal and natural-
istic, I didn’t want you to notice the camera, so the
camera doesn’t move a lot. It’s shot in a very simple
way so you’re just alone with this character.
IS: William Eggleston’s photographs often spring to mind
I remember when watch your films.
I

writing some things - like when they’re in the pool
underwater having the tea party and I thought,
“Oh no, that’s too corny.” But then I thought, “Oh
no, let’s try it,” and it ended up being a moment
that I liked. I guess sometimes you have to risk
being corny, but 1 did try to keep it in check. I
wanted the whole thing to be understated and
subtle - 1 like that, it seems more like life to me.
I feel like in movies they have to make things more
dramatic than in reality, but this one I wanted to be
more naturalistic and to see how little details can
express emotions - more like in life.
IS: After deciding on this approach, how did you go about
writing the script?
SC: I like finding visual ways to tell a story.
with the image of him [Johnny, played by Stephen
Dorff] in the Ferrari on the track. I wanted to think
of visuals to explain the character and the state he’s
in. At the time 1 was living in Paris, taking some
time off after Marie Antoinette, and had had a child.
I was so far away from California that I was
thinking about it and, every once in a while, a
friend would come to town and bring a weekly
tabloid from America - they looked so exotic in
Paris. So I was thinking about Los Angeles and the
pop culture, I was thinking about movies like
Shampoo and American Gigolo that really captured
the city at that time, and I wanted to do something
SC: Yeah, I really admire his work. I didn’t look at
his photos specifically for this film, but both Harris
and 1 really like his work. The lenses we shot
Somewhere on were the ones my dad used for
Rumble Fish [1983]. My brother had saved them and
Harris wanted to use them - they’re old beautiful
lenses, so they have a different look, less sharp and
with a kind of softer feeling. But it’s also nostalgic,
because I loved the way Rumble Fish looked.
IS: You’ve said before that when you start thinking about
a film you often have an atmosphere in mind. Was that
the case here?
SC: With Lost in Translation I started with the idea
of Tokyo and how to show that. And here I started
I started with the character of this guy and by thinking
about what kind of state he was in. I listen to music
when I’m writing, and there’s a certain atmosphere
that comes from that. I like trying to create a mood,
so you’re in a different world for the time you’re
watching the movie.
IS: This is your first film from a male perspective.
SC: As Marie Antoinette ’was so girlyand feminine, I
was in the mood to do something different. There
were some news articles about young successful
actors in crisis, so I was thinking about that. And
then there was the challenge about having to write
from a different point of view.
IS: There’s not very much dialogue in the film - did

that showed contemporary LA and my view of it. you have lots of conversations with Stephen Dorff and
IS: Landscape plays a major role in your films - Tokyo in Elle Fanning before shooting?
‘Lost in Translation’, Versailles in ‘Marie Antoinette’. SC: The scenes that were scripted are pretty simple,
SC: I wantedLA as it looks and feels. The
to film but even though it’s minimal dialogue, it’s impor-
light is very specific there. And 1 wanted to capture tant to the story. You can express a lot with a glance
a certain side of its pop and celebrity culture - the or a gesture. I did talk with the actors - Stephen
pole-dancing twins [in the film], for example, they understood that a lot of it was him just being alone,
were from the Playboy Mansion. smoking a cigarette, yet I feel like you can learn a
IS: In ‘Lost in Translation’ there are lots of shots over the lot about him. I think he liked it - it’s challenging
city. In ‘Somewhere’ there’s only one towards the end. for an actor not to do a lot of ‘performing’, to be
TWO SETS OF EYES
SC: When I visited Tokyo
was a foreigner discov- I alone with a crew there. I think both him and Elle
Cinematographer
ering this whole other planet, so I wanted to show understood the style of the movie. Harris Savides lines up
that Here, Johnny’s really stuck in a world he’s less IS: Compared with Bob (Bill Murray’s character) in ‘Lost his shot with Coppola;
excited about - it’s more mundane. It’s [set] within in Translation’ Johnny is much harder to empathise with. he influenced the birth
his world, so it’s less expansive. SC: I didn’t really think about him in comparison of her film’s story

IS: Do you think of all your films as being connected in a with BiU Murray’s character specifically. The film
visual way? is really about an existential crisis that anyone can

20 sight & Sound January 2011

I |
 relate to, even though
it’s set in an exotic world.

The reason Stephen is that I know he’s a

I cast
really sweet, genuine guy and - given the char-
acter’s pretty flawed and not that likeable - that
that would come through. And I liked the fact that
you hadn’t seen him in 20 movies last year and
that you don’t know that much about his personal
life. I always thought Stephen was a great actor.

Mainly, I think he was just right for the part.

IS: Johnny’s world is one you’re very familiar with. Were
there a lot of autobiographical elements in the film?
SC: I am familiar with that world, so there are some
aspects that come from things I’ve seen and stories
I’ve heard. Or things I’ve made up from what could
have been. It’s not so autobiographical, but it is
informed by familiarity. The little girl is based on a
friend of minewhose parents are in Hollywood,
since grow up there, but then I tried to
I didn’t
put in memories from my own childhood to make
it personal.
IS: There’s a lot of attention to detail in the background
- 1 liked your inclusion of the Ed Ruscha print in Johnny’s
room in Chateau Marmont.
SC: wanted all of those elements to make it feel
I

real. Stephen’s familiar with Ed Ruscha and told me

about that work: it says ‘Cold Beer Beautiful Girls’,

I think. I’ve always loved his art and I liked the idea
thatJohnny might have bought it in a gallery but
had nowhere to put it, so it’s just leaning there in
the plastic.
IS: And Ruscha’s art is all about LA, so there’s a nice link.
SC: Yeah, I always think about him when I think
about LA. I also thought about the words that he
uses [superimposed over his images] for the film’s
title, which I thought kind of related to his work.
IS: So the film’s title didn’t have anything to do with the
song ‘Somewhere’?
SC: No, it came from these vague words Ruscha

uses - and the idea that the character knows he

needs to go somewhere but doesn’t know where.
IS: A scene in the film that really stands out is where
Johnny is having the mask made and the camera lingers
on him as his face is covered in gunk.
SC: That was actually the first thing we filmed. 1
wanted to do some things in real time, but I didn’t
know how long we’d actually stay with him. It
always makes me claustrophobic when I see that
scene. I was just trying to think of odd things an
actor would do in his work without showing him
on a film set - they learn strange skills for different
movies. And then there was the visual metaphor of
him being stuck.
IS: You never show him on a film set, just around the
promotional mechanics of the film industry.
SC: I wanted it to be an in-between time for him.
The lenses we shot But I want it to be about the film
also didn’t
business - that’s the world he’s in and we allude
‘Somewhere’ on were to it, but it’s about his time in-between when
the ones my dad used he’s alone.

for ‘Rumble Fish’

'Somewhere' is released on 10 December, and is
reviewed on page 84

sight & Sound |

January 2011 21
1
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David Fincher andApichatpong Weerasethakul vpingfor the top spot in the S&S annual
poll proves at least that auteur cinema is alive and well across the globe, saps Nick James

REVIEW
OF THE
YEAR
W hat the most important films of
the last year were depends on
what you want from cinema in
a time of austerity. That’s the
conclusion we’ve drawn after
canvassing 85 of our contribu-
tors for the top five new films they saw in the
course of 2010, and their other highlights of the
year. Some will argue that the phenomenal success
of James Cameron’s Auatar (released worldwide in
December 2009) shows that a big spectacle can be
Fincher’s film also answers the complaint made
in these pages about

in the
US cinema in

an American film has won so much across-the-

board support, given that last year Jonathan
Romney was moved to remark: “It seems to have
comparison
with last year’s winner A Prophet (so strong that it’s
again in our top ten, having been released in 2010
UK and many other territories). It’s good that

become an article of faith that there’s no longer

much point looking for revelations in US cinema.”
No one should conclude from The Social
Olivier Assayas’s Carlos, at number four,
strates that

harbinger of
demon-
filmmakers haven’t lost their fascina-
tion with terrorism as a subject for thrillers. Origi-
nally made for television,
many more
it’s also likely to prove a
film-auteur-led
dramas in the future, the most obvious being Todd
Haynes’s forthcoming Mildred Pierce. Haynes’s
move to TV is an indication of the parlous state of
affairs in US indie cinema, which makes Debra
Granik’s Winter's Bone a triumph against the grain.
The same can be said, for different reasons, about
TV

an effective antidote to hard times. Some will even Networks success, however, that our constituency Luca Guadagnino’s / Am Love (equal sixth), which
reduce Kathryn Bigelow’s 2010 Best Picture Oscar has become more sheeplike. Almost 200 titles revives the promise of a vanished kind of romantic
win for The Hurt Lockeriioleased earlier in 2009) to were selected in the various top fives; our prime European cinema of ravishing opulence.
a mere snub to Avatar. But in this magazine, Avatar representative of a world of cinema that’s com- Jean-Luc Godard’s command over us is probably
doesn’t feature in anyone’s list (our critics’ antipa- pletely different from Hollywood is Apichatpong even if his former confreres in the nouvelle
eternal,
thy towards CGI spectacles is just as pointed in Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His vague have begun to leave us - among the most
regard to that other huge box-office phenomenon, Past Lives, which received 19 votes to gain second poignant losses of the year were Eric Rohmer and
Christopher Nolan’s which gained just
Inception, place - one of three films from outside Europe and Claude Chabrol. Godard’s Film socialisme may be
one vote). The Hurt Locker, by contrast, came joint the US to make it into our top ten (actually a top hard to grapple with, but it would be equally hard
second last year. The sort of cinema the wider 12, owing to a five- way tie for eighth place). The for such a veteran to find a more colourful, inven-
public flocks to see, then, bears little relationship others are Nostalgia for the Light (one of two rare tive and demonstrative way of shoving out his
to what our 85 contributors want to celebrate. documentary choices) and Poetry -and this despite hand and saying: “No comment.”
But that doesn’t mean that our writers are hit- the increasing difficulty in distributing such films. The log-jam of titles at number eight is followed
phobic. This year’s winning film is David Fincher’s For those interested in British cinema, the event - off the bottom of the top 1 2 - by another log-jam
The Social Network, the topical drama about the of the year had to be the new government’s shock tied at number 13 (Aurora, Enter the Void, The
founder of Facebook that’s achieved a rare kind of decision to abolish the UK Film Council. The Illusionist, Meek's Cutoff, Toy Story 3), although two
all-round success (at the time of writing it’s taken UKFC’s shabby treatment of the BFI made it hard of those titles have yet to be released in the UK, and
£9 million in the UK alone). No fewer than 22 of for us to grieve, but latterly their shifts in policy are sure to feature more strongly next year. But
our writers listed it; aside from Aaron Sorkin’s dia- had been heading in the right direction. The pres- what this further suggests is that 2010 was not a
logue fireworks, I would say that its appeal is down ence in our top ten of both Mike Leigh’s Another great year for cinema of the kind that makes a big
to the narrative’s gripping relationship to some- Year and newcomer Clio Barnard’s The Arbor is cultural impact - or, like Avatar, assumes it does. It
thing we all worry about: what online networking testament to a British film sector that, this year at was rather more like the steady rise of an allotment
is doing to our sense of identity. least, has been a little more daring. cinema of smaller successes (allotment as in a
patch of ground on which you can grow flowers,
fruit and vegetables).

If there is any important movement in cinema

right now, it must be this diffusion of separate enti-

ties - the products, if you like, of a ragbag union of

loners. It’s a long way, for instance, from The Social

O Networkio The Autobiography ofNicolae Ceausescu.
But isn’t that just another way of saying that auteur
The Social Network =8 The Autobiography of cinema is alive and well all over the globe?
{David Fincher, USA) Nicolae Ceausescu
2 Uncle Boonmee Who Can (Autobiografia lui

Nicolae Ceausescu)
The complete version of this poll, including every
Recall His Past Lives
(Lung Boonmee raluek chat) (Andrei Ujica, Romania) comment made on everyfilm, will be available online
(Apichatpong Weerasethakul, =8 Film socialisme on 7 December at www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound.
Thailand/UK/France/Germany/ (Jean-Luc Godard, Contributors whose lists we were unfortunately
Spain/Netherlands/USA) Switzerland/France) unable tofeature on thefollowing pagesfor lack of
3 Another Year (Mz/celez^/i, UK) =8 Nostalgia for the Light space include: James Bell, Nick Bradshaw, Dylan
4 Carlos (Olivier Assayas, France/ (Nostalgia de la luz)
Cave, Roger Clarke, Kieron Corless, Chris Darke,
Germany/Belgium) (Patricio Guzman, France/
Germany/Chile)
Thomas Dawson, William Fowler, Peter Homes,
5 The Arbor (Clio Barnard, UK)
=8 Poetry (Si) Sophie Ivan, Kevin Jackson, Philip Kemp, Geoffrey
=6 Winter’s Bone
(Lee Changdong, South Korea) Macnab, Demetrios Matheou, Hannah McGill,
(Debra Granik, USA)
=6 Am Love (lo sono I’amore)
I
=8 A Prophet (Un Prophete) James Mottram, Vic Pratt, Nicolas Rapold,
(Luca Guadagnino, Italy) (Jacques Audiard, France/Italy)/ Jasper Sharp, Anna Smith, Samuel Wigley and
Jason Wood. Their contributions will all be online.

24 Sight & Sound January 2011

1 I
Sight & Sound |
January 2011 25
1
2010 The Year in Review
i Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik)
THE
ROUND-UP
GEOFF ANDREW
Head of film programme. BFI Southbank. UK
Aurora (Cristi Puiu^
Romama/France/Switzerland/Gemmn];)
This follow-up to The Death ofMr
Laiarescu is one of the most
imcompromisingly rigorous films of the
year, an often defiantly taciturn, even
uneventful study of a day and a half in
the life of a man who also happens to
take the lives of others.
Certified Copy (Copie conforme) (Abbas
Kiarostami, France/Ital};/Belgium)
The Iranian master’s most ‘commercial’
movie (it stars Juliette Binoche and may
be seen as a Tuscan-set love story) refuses
easy readings even after repeat viewings.
Full of ambiguities, absences, ironies and
intentional inconsistencies, it’s a teasing
(if finally affecting) film in the
conditional: what if?
Nostalgia for the Light (Patricio Guzman)
Astronomy, archaeology, Chilean
history and politics - Guzman’s sly,
measured essay excavates all manner
of things on its deeply humane mission
to place the pain of personal loss within
a far wider philosophical context.
Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des
dieux) (Xavier Beauvois, France)
You want straightforward narrative?
This is it - though Beauvois’s taken-
from-life account of a North African
monastery threatened by Muslim
fundamentalists avoids thriller cliche to
provide a subtly insightful and moving
study of fear, faith and fatal intolerance.
Poetry (Si) (Lee Changdong, South Korea)
Seeboxp.28.
Highlights: In a year vrithan unusually
experimental Palme d’Or-winner, Uncle
Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,
I also found three other admirably
audacious but accessible films
particularly rewarding: Jose Maria de
Orbe’s Father (Aita), Michelangelo
Frammartino’s Lequattro volte sind Lodge
Kerrigan’s Rebecca H. (Return to theDogs)-
all engagingly mysterious, cinematically
witty and emotionally affecting, as
well as being philosophically and
formally fascinating.
Otherwise, Manoel de Oliveira’s
Rite ofSpring {Acto da primavera, 1963)
was for me the restoration of the year,
while Bernardo Bertolucci’s intelligent,
often very funny onstage interview at
BFI Southbank in October was a
joyous celebration of cinephilia.
26 Sight & Sound January 2011
I I
MICHAEL ATKINSON
USA
Critic.
The Red Riding Trilogy (Julian Jarrold,
James Marsh G'Anand Tucker, UK)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
Dogtooth (Kynodontas) (Yorgos
Lanthimos, Greece)
I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino)
Mother (Bong Joon-ho, South Korea)
ROBIN BAKER
Head curator. BFI National Film Archive.
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
The Arbor (Clio Barnard)
Still Walking (Aruitemo, Aruitemo)
(Kore-eda Hirokazu, Japan)
Winter's Bone (Debra Granik)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
If everyone included this last year, then
my vote goes to:
Lourdes (Jessica Hausner,
A u Stria/Germany/France)
Highlights: The BFI’s restoration of
Hepworth and Stow’s Alice in Wonderland
(1903) became an improbable YouTube
hit. The sense of awe and delighted
incredulity it provoked among viewers
more likely to seek out videos of
sneezing baby pandas was inspiring.
Sitting with an audience in Beijing
as Xie Fei discussed the experience of
filming Black Snow in Tiananmen Square
in T 989 was revelatory - not just about
the director’s work, but about
contemporary China too.
As I watched Herbert Footing’s
The Great White Silenceiigif), its original
tinting and toning finally restored, his
haunting images of Scott’s ill-fated
expedition to the Antarctic glowed
once again like stained glass.
The two films that made me weep were
Toy Story 5 and John Krish’s They Took Us
to f/ie Sea (1961). Both masterful and both
in their very different ways about the end
of childhood.
Observing two of our leading directors
on a visit to the National Film Archive
poring over Carol Reed’s annotated
shooting script for The Third Man like
boys encountering the Holy Grail was
a joy. Watching the only copy of Ken
Loach’s 1970 documentary made for Save
the Children, which is prevented from
leaving the vaults of the BFI National
Archive by a court injunction, I was
privileged to discover that it’s every bit
and formally
as brilliant, provocative
radical as you could hope or expect.
PETER BISKIND
Cntic.USA
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Ialways find it exciting to discover a new,
gifted filmmaker, even one who’s new
just to me, and I so admired Winter's Bone
that I checked out Granik’s first feature
Down to the Bone, and liked it almost as
much. It’s so hard to make drug films
these days (this latter one was released
in 2004) without falling into all the
cliches that have nearly destroyed the
genre, but Granik succeeds.
Made in Dagenham
(Nigel Cole, UK/Ireland)
The King's Speech
(Tom Hooper, UK/Australia)
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
ANTON BITEL
Academic and critic. UK
1 (Pater Sparrow, Hungary)
Red White & Blue (Simon Rumley, USA)
Simon Rumley’s slow-burning tripartite
drama spirals inexorably towards
parallel acts of misdirected vengeance,
and in the ellipses and silences of its
economic narrative lurk the darkest
aspects of the American psyche, as well
as a fine performance from Noah Taylor.
Winter Vacation (Han jia)
(Li Hongqi, China)
“One day after another, it seems as if life
never ends,” deadpans one of the bored
young characters in the latest film by
China’s answer to Jarmusch, Kaurismaki
UK and Roy Andersson. Winter Vacation
offers up the tedium and aimlessness
of provincial life as a sly rejoinder to
China’s post-Olympics image of progress
and prosperity. It’s bleak, spare - and
absurdly funny.
Amer (HHene Cattet & Bruno Forzani,
France/Belgium)
Cattet and Forzani have lovingly crafted
this surrealist homage to the thematic
preoccupations, visual stylings and
musical cues of the T970S giallo.
An unnerving triptych in which
conventional narrative has been
replaced by nightmarish perspective
and thrillingly tactile imagery.
Skeletons (Nick Whitfield, UK)
Nick Whitfield’s feature debut is a
quirkily comic psychodrama of family,
memory and loss, mixing Inception-sty^e
brain-bending tropes with Pythonesque
English banality. Rarely is such high
concept presented in so low a key;
the result, for all its cultish oddity,
is reassuringly human.
Highlight: Interviewing Stanford
professor Bernardo Huberman about
using social networks to predict
box-office revenue. A fascinating
glimpse into the way that Web 2.0
both reflects and shapes our
cinemagoing experience.
PETER BRADSHAW
The Guardian! UK
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughn, UK/USA)
Like an intravenous injection of pure
monosodium glutamate, Kick-Ass
delivered a blast of energy, incorrectness
and anarchy with a tale of adolescent
wish-fulfilment that has genuinely
captured the spirit of comic books in
a way nothing else has.
The Other Guys (Adam McKay, USA)
This brilliant frat-boy comedy
triumphantly survived some critical
condescension and dullness, and
showed an admirable devotion simply
to getting as many laughs as possible.
Enter the Void (Caspar Noe, France/USA/
Germany/Italy/Japan/Canada)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Highlight: One great pleasure of 2010
was the Frank Capra retrospective,
which gave us relatively unconsidered
gems like 1 9 3 2’s Forbidden - a film with
Capra’s traditional yellow-press
journalistsand pork-barrel politicians,
which allowed us to ponder how this,
and other of his films, fed into the
creation of Citizen Kane.
NICOLE BRENEZ
Critic. France
Dystopia Files (Markfiibe, USA)
A homage to the anonymous
demonstrators who struggle against
day by day, this is a visual
injustice
supplement to Howard Zinris book
A People's History ofthe United States.
Film socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard)
The End of the World Starts With One Lie
- First Part (Lech Kowalski, France/USA)
A brilliant deconstruction of Robert
Flaherty’s Louisiana Story, this first
section of a fresco focuses on the
New Orleans oil spill.
X+ (Mary lene Negro, France)
Without respite, cinema records
silhouettes, groups, crowds, masses -
fleeting passers-by of the era they’re
crossing, walk-on parts bearing witness
to the Zeitgeist that carries them. X+
explores the visual and sonic forms
of presence thanks to which the silver-
emulsion imprints of the countless
unknown human beings who make
up the thread of humanity linger
or dissolve.
Highlight: ‘Conversation avec un
realisateur israelien imagine’ - a week
in April curated by Akram Zaatari -with
Avi Mograbi at the Laboratoires
d’Aubervilliers, France - transcended
the double censorships of two countries
at war, Lebanon and Israel, creating
a temporary zone of freedom -
and cleverness.
ED BUSCOMBE
Critic.UK
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino)
The kind of Italian film they don’t seem
to make any more - a tale of passion set
amid the narcissistic, frigid upper class,
a subject that harks back to the great
days of Italian cinema.
The Ghost (The Ghost Writer) (Roman
Polanski, France/Germany/UK)
A welcome return to form for Polanski,
with a cunningly constructed tale of
dirty deeds in high places, which
irresistibly invites one to speculate on
the connection with recent political
events. Shot on a bleakly evocative
wintry coastline, with a terrific
performance by Ewan McGregor as
the eponymous ghost writer, it’s a film
with old-fashioned, solid virtues.
White Material (Claire Denis,
France/Cameroon)
Isabelle Huppert (superb as always) is
the owner of a coffee plantation in an
unnamed African country, threatened
with disaster by the chaos around her
during a civil war. It’s a disturbing film,
its characters menaced by forces neither
they nor we can really understand.
Another Year (Mike Leigh, UK)
Seeboxp.gg.

0 Film socialisme Like many friends, I’m
still figuring this one out - and the effort has
already been well worth the trouble. Even when
Godard’s pet notions are unduly solipsistic,
the work (and play) with sound and image are
too dazzling to ignore. Jonathan Rosenbaum
0 Nostalgia for the Light In Chile’s Atacama
desert, astronomers examine the origins of the
universe. Close to the observatory, families of the
disappeared search for vestiges of their loved ones,
victims of Pinochet’s regime. An extraordinary film
about the unknown and the unknowable. Manaoeigado
C) The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
Andrei Ujica’s reconfiguration of archival
propaganda material, quietly needling
out its intrinsic irony and the seeds of its own
unravelling, is stunningly innovative in the
realm of documentary, carmencray
DAVE CALHOUN
Film editor. Time Out London! UK
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Exit through the Gift Shop (Banksy, UK)
The Arbor (Clio Barnard)
The Mouth of the Wolf (La Bocca del lupo)
(Pietro Marcello, Italy/France)
Highlights: A memorial screening at
the Berlinale of Eric Rohmer’s Pauline
a la plage, introduced by Michel Ciment
and Frederic Mitterrand; a late-night
screening of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The
Wages ofFear, also in Berlin; Ken Loach’s
rousing keynote speech at the LFF; the
Fellini exhibition at Paris’s Jeu de Paume
gallery; Andrew Kbtting’s ‘Swandown’
exhibit at the UCA. campus, Famham
- a taster, hopefully, of a new film with
lain Sinclair; Ronald Harwood’s talk on
screenwriting at BFI Southbank; the
release of Roman Polanski; the re-
establishment of direct links between
government and the BFI; the eating in
/ Am Love, the ecstatic lunacy of
Black Swan; and the strange allure of
a pregnant Isabelle Carre in Le Rejuge.
TOM CHARITY
Vancity Theatre program coordinator. Canada
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Nostalgia for the Light (Patricio Guzman)
Carlos (Olivier Assayas)
Poetry (Lee Changdong)
Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami)
Highlights: In the trailer for Tron: Legacy,
Jeff Bridges comes face to face with his
own youth - not a clip from the 1982
movie (which I never saw), but the
actor’s digital avatar. The implications
are dizzying. Maybe actresses will stop
mutilating their flesh now. Maybe we
won’t need any new actors at all. But I
bet Bridges will be more compelling
acting his real age in True Grit
Seeing 127 Hbwrsafter waiting two
hours in line at the Toronto International
Film Festival - because not all digital
projectors are created equal, apparently.
Maybe the wait actually improved the
movie? With Toy Story 3, this was the
best Hollywood movie of the year.
Seeing - and hearing - Dziga Vertov’s
Man with a Movie Camera with live
accompaniment from the incomparable
Alloy Orchestra - and reflecting that
the childshown being brought into the
world in the explicit birth scene must
be over 80 now, if he survived the 20th
century, and wondering if he ever saw
thismost modem of films. And if he did,
did he recognise himself?
IAN CHRISTIE
Profe^r of film history. Biii<beck. UK
Mysteries of Lisbon (MistMos de Lisboa)
(Raul Ruiz, Portugal)
How Ended This Summer (Kakya provel
I the inventive mise en scene.
etim letom) (Alexei Popogrebsky, Russia)
An elemental cat-and-mouse
psychodrama set in the frozen north, by
one of Russia’s brightest new talents.
Robinson in Ruins (Patrick Keiller, UK)
The third instalment of Keiller’s
Robinsonade moves away from cities and
docks to probe the English landscape
with a steely yet moving intensity.
Tetro (Francis Ford Coppola,
Argentina/Italy/Spain/USA
It’s crazy and uneven, to say the least,
but even so a reminder of what once
made Coppola so exciting as a ‘movie
brat’ - and a wonderful reinvention
from a veteran.
The Nail in the Boot (Mikhail Kalatozov,
1931, USSR)
One of this year’s Pordenone Festival
highlights - the banned and believed-
lost early feature by Kalatozov, famous
for The Cranes Are Flying and I Am Cuba.
Here was the same delirious
cinematography already present in a
propaganda piece that pulls out all the
stops to hammer home its point
Highlights: The soundtrack of Scorsese’s
Shutter Island came as a total surprise,
even to someone who’d followed the
film’s making. An amazing anthology
of 20th-century avant-garde music
accompanies Teddy’s soul-searching
mission, giving the paranoid imagery
even greater edge and depth.
Another unexpected treat was the
climax of Thierry Fremaux’s Lumiere
presentation at the Bologna Cinema
Ritrovato festival. Louis Lumiere always
believed film should be in colour and
stereoscopic, but actually to see the 3D
projection he finally achieved in the
1 930s, recreated on the Piazza Maggiore
giant screen, was to be reminded that
3D is hardly a recent novelty - more
like how it was always meant to be.
MICHEL CIMENT
Positif, France
The Ditch (Jiabiangou) (Wang Bing,
Hong Kong/France/Belgium)
The famous documentary filmmaker
( West ofthe Tracks) brings his sense of
reality to depict the harrowing
conditions of the life of the prisoners
in this powerful rendering of the re-
education camps in Mao’s China.
Poetry (Lee Changdong)
Confirming the exceptional talent of
the South Korean director - and the
vitality of Far East cinema - Poetry for
me deserved to win the Palme d’Or
in Cannes.
Silent Souls (Ovsyanki) (Aleksei
Fedorchenko, Russia)
A poetic vision of life which testifies
to the new surge in Russian cinema.
Of Gods and Men (Xavier Beauvois)
Recreates with warmth and gravity
the fate of seven monks decapitated
in an Algerian monastery.
Mysteries of Lisbon (Raul Ruiz)
One of two great films originally
produced for television this year (the
other being Carlos), Mysteries ofLisbon is
a masterpiece by Ruiz, shortened to four-
and-a-half hours. Adapted from a 19th-
century novel by Castelo Branco, it
would have made Visconti jealous.
A rake becoming a monk, an anguished
bastard child, a tortured wife and
a castrating father are the protagonists
of a romantic-surrealistic melodrama
shot in gorgeous colours and constantly
surprising by the twists of its plot and
Highlight: A box-set of five DVDs
distributed by Arte Editions brings
back to life the films made in the 1960s
by Pierre Etaix, a worthy heir of the
slapstick tradition of Keaton and Tati.
PAM COOK
Academic. UK
The Killer inside Me (Michael
Winterbottom, USA/UK/Sweden/France)
The Road (JohnHillcoat USA)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
A Town Called Panic (Panique au village)
(Stephane Aubier & Vincent Patar,
Belgium/Luxembourg/France)
Tetro (Francis Ford Coppola)
Sight & Sound I January 2011 27
1
 2010 The Year in Review
^ MARK COUSINS
Filmmaker and critic, ‘Prospect’, UK
Film socialisme (Jean Luc Godard)
Stupid in love, solitary, misanthropic,
spitting fury. As wildly energetic as
Kkk-Ass(wh\ch I also loved and which,
Ithought, was a great Jewish comedy.
Jean-Luc, rent it from LoveFilm ).
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
Which loves people as much as Godard
doesn’t. Leigh’s most Ozu-like film.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
In which people split in two, in which
death is a soft membrane (if only), and
inwhich the shots are as great as the
cuts in the Godard film.
Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami)
Juliette Binoche, you were made for
movies, like Falconetti or Louise Brooks
or Anna Karina.
The Illusionist (L’lllusionniste)
(Splvain Chomet, UK/France)
My home city, Edinburgh, lifted off
the ground by film.
Highlights: I spent more time making
than watching films this year, and my
movie memories of 2010 are all over the
shop: I wore a kilt and climbed to the
Hollywood sign at dusk. (It bangs as it
cools.) 1 spent time with Stanley Donen
and argued with him about his film
Twofor the Road. For months I relished
the arrival of Terrence Malick’s new
movie Tree ofLife, but he has kept us
waiting. I cried - know, what a jessie -
at the beauty of Claudia Cardinale in
Girl with a Suitcase (^La ragazza con la
valigia, 1961), which I saw for the
first time at the Telluride Film Festival.
I made a little cinema in a village in
Iraq andshowed films to kids - and
saw my boyhood in their euphoria.
The lowlight of my movie year was the
death of my friend, the film-book author
John Orr, who wrote like Godard cuts.
MARIA DELGADO
Academic and critic. UK
Nostalgia for the Light (Patricio Guzman)
See box p. 2 7.
The Peddler (El ambulante)
(Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas Marcheggiano
& Adriana Yurkovich, Argentina)
A trio of directors follow intrepid, self-
taught filmmaker Daniel Burmeister as
he arrives in a sleepy Argentine town
and embarks on a modest genre pic with
a group of locals. A wonderful, hugely
entertaining documentary that juggles
observations on small town life with
reflections on why film matters and
how it can make a difference.
The Mosquito Net (La Mosquitera)
(AgustiVila, Spain)
This dark, bitter tale of a bourgeois
Catalan family’s multiple neurosis
offers a brilliant indictment of a world
where children are treated like adults
and adults behave like teenagers.
What Love the Most (Lo que mas quiero)
I Highlights: Watching Claude
(Delfina Castagnino, Argentina)
Another small gem from Argentina
that captures the shifting dynamics
between two friends over a Patagonian
summer with a less-is-more approach, as
Castagnino’s fixed camera observes what
said and what lies between the lines.
is
Biutiful (Alejandro Gonzalez Ihdrritu,
Spain/Mexico)
Highlights: Talking to Gonzalez Inarritu
about the mechanics of filmmaking;
finding DVDs of all Martin Rejtman’s
majestic black comedies in Buenos Aires;
watching the ghosts of Basque film
28 Sight
I & Sound I January 2011
history flicker on the walls of Jose
de Orbe’s family house in the elegiac
Mana
Father, raising a glass to Luis Minarro,
Spain’s most ambitious independent
producer, who was involved in three
of my favourite films of the year: Uncle
Boonmee, Father and The Mosquito Net
MAR DIESTRO-DOPIDO
‘Sight & Sound’
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Nostalgia for the Light (Patricio Guzman)
Mnemosyne (John Akomfrah)
The Arbor {Clio Barnard)
Father (Aita) (Jose Mana de Orbe, Spain)
La vida sublime (The Life Sublime)
(Daniel V. Villamediana, Spain)
Highlight: Sharing a reindeer soup
with Jonathan Rosenbaum and Andrei
Khrzhanovsky, director of A Room and
a Half in a teepee near the Arctic,
surrounded by 300 huskies howling
at the sunset.
THE FERRONI BRIGADE AKA
CHRISTOPH HUBER & OLAF MQLLER
Critics. Austria/Germany
Final Flesh (Vernon Chatman, USA)
The Ragnarok of modem comedy
and the surprise find of the year:
an apocalypse-themed huis clos so
outrageously weird it reportedly left
its creator dumbstmck. Imagine a
mix of South Park at its most vulgarly
surrealistic and Ferreri at his loosest and
least inhibited, directed by an assortment
of porno hacks and featuring dazzlingly
acting-challenged talents.
Odipus Monument Test 01
(Norbert Ifaffenbichler, Austria)
Durs Grunbein liest die dritte Satire
des Juvenal (Klaus Wybomy, Germany)
Two avant-garde studies for tmly radical
(re-)readings of Greek and Roman
classics. From the construction site
of a world cinema apart.
Of Gods and Men (Xavier Beauvois)
Wall Street Money Never Sleeps
(Oliver Stone, USA)
Broker and broken, world trade and
family ties, cold cynicism and hot-
hearted hope. This might go down as
the most misunderstood Hollywood
masterpiece of 2010 (followed closely
by Joel Schumacher’s similarly reviled
® Poetry The title tells all,
(a woman takes to writing verse as her grandson
is a girl’s suicide) and tone of Lee
implicated in
Changdong’s exquisite film. Seamlessly conjoining
many themes, it benefits from one of the year’s
best performances, from Yun Junghee. Geoff Andrew
Twelve). Stone’s portrait of high finance
as a self-obsessed, Darwinism-keyed
clique of social killer mutants merrily
working away towards self-extinction
was seemingly too subtle, sardonic and
sinister for folks wanting a quick, clean
condemnation of bankerdom - it ain’t
that simple.
Oca (Father) (Vlado Skafar, Slovenia)
The proletarian, low-budget,
emotionally exhilarating answer to
Wall Street a sketch of people whose
lives are destroyed by global capitalism
going berserk - which, again, is like
saying that Au hasard BalthazarteWs
the sad tale of a donkey’s life.
Vapor Trail (Clark)
(John Gianvito, USA/Philippines)
A monument to all poor who refuse
to see themselves as imperialism’s
collateral damage, erected in
humble solidarity.
Highlight:Meeting Miguel Manas in
Bologna. Truly a soulmate in cinema.
PHILIP FRENCH
‘The Observer! UK
Inception (Christopher Nolan, USA/UK)
Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik)
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
The Kids Are All Right
(Lisa Cholodenko, USA/France)
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Highlights: The year’s great revival was
the near-definitive restoration of Lang’s
been watching
Metropolis (igzj). I’ve
ragged versions in uncomfortable
venues since I was a teenage cinephile
in the early 1950s: it’s now available
on DVD for home viewing. The most
revealing revival was Leo McCarey’s
1937 Make Wayfor Tomorrow (Eureka
Blu-ray), a Depression classic that must
have been Ozu’s model for Tokyo Story.
The most illuminating film book
that came my way this year was Susan
Compo’s W&rmiOflfes (University Press
of Kentucky), appropriately subtitled
A Wild Life. It’s a frank, fascinating
biography of a dedicated character
actor who moved in the less fashionable
Hollywood circles and appeared in
some of the key movies of his time.
A defining cinematic event? Our
coalition government’s decision to scrap
the UK Film Council is, if not exactly a
evoking both the story
tragedy, then a stupid, ill-considered
decision, characteristic of the
Establishment’s attitude towards our
cinema and our movie industry over
the past 80 years, whether the aim was
to curb or encourage. Harold Wilson
in the 1940s, Thatcher in the 80s, Brown
in the early years of this century - it’s all
much the same.
CHRIS FUJIWARA
Critic,USA
Condolences (Ying Liang, China)
A short built around the stubbornness
of a woman’s body as it stays in a chair,
while all around her an official ceremony
of forgetting is taking place. Across the
duration of this unflinching image,
tragedy and irony trade off, neither one
willing to abandon the field to the other,
and neither able to assert clear title to it.
Rosalinda (Matias Pineiro, Argentina)
This short revitalises a kind of dialogue
with theatre that cinema used to engage
in more frequently (sometimes with the
brilliance of To Be or Not to Be). Taking
as its starting point a series of rehearsals
of As You Like It, it’s one of the most
interesting Shakespeare films to
emerge since the death of Orson Welles.
O Estranho Caso de Angelica (The
Strange Case of Angelica) (Manoelde
Oliveira, Portuga l/Spa i n/France/Brazil)
Toujours moins (LucMoullet, France)
Studying the recent history of the
replacement of human workers by
automation, Toujours moins \s a film
of supreme elegance and wit.
Festival (Jean-Claude Rousseau, France)
GRAHAM FULLER
Critic, USA
Carlos (Olivier Assayas)
Seeboxp.gg.
Father of My Children (Le Pere de mes
enfants) (Mia Hansen-l^ve,
France/Germany)
Hansen-Love explored “the cruelty of
cinema” in her second feature, which
claims as its martyr-victim an urbane
producer of risky arthouse ventures.
The scene in which his grieving family
moves from darkness to light during
a power cut is a sublime metaphor for
carrying on.
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, USA)
A ‘slow cinema’ first for the genre,
Reichardt’s revisionist-feminist western
reveals how pioneer families went astray
on a waterless branch of the Oregon Trail
in 1845. Starkly poetic, it punctures both
the racist masculine aggression of
Manifest Destiny and Fordian nostalgia.
Revanche (Gotz Spielmann, Austria)
This impressive anti-thriller morphs
from sleazy noirto serene Christian
parable as it follows a bank robber
from Vienna to the countryside and
leads him from revenge to redemption.
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Lanzmann’s Holocaust documentary
Shoah on its 25th-anniversary rerelease
in New York put everything else I saw
into perspective. Who can comprehend
the backwards look of the train driver
at his ghostly cargo, the throat-slitting
gestures of warning to the trapped
Jews, the horror of the song taught
to new arrivals at Treblinka?
Elsewhere, it was a banner year for
Powell {Black NarcissusDVD, Peeping Tom
Lang {Dr Mabuse and MDVDs,
revived),
Metropolis restored), Hitch cock-as-icon
{Double Take) and Clouzot {Inferno).
 PARK CIRCUS

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ATHE kid a the great dictator a the gold rush a modern times a the circus a city lights a the CHAPLIN REVUE
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 2010 The Year in Review
0 1 Am Love (lo sono I’amore)
Luca Guadagnino’s Tilda Swinton vehicle is
the best portrait of crumbling aristocracy since
Luchino Visconti’s ‘The Leopard’ - and also
has a delirious homage to D.H. Lawrence as
the cherry on the cake. NamanRamachandran
^ CHARLES GANTUK
’Heat’ magazine,
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Toy Story 3 (Lee UnJ^ch, USA)
Catfish (Henry Joost& Ariel Schulman,
USA)
Emotional rollercoaster rides from
opposite ends of the budgetary scale:
the latter documentary seems so
outrageously exploitative, the only
explanation could be that it was in fact
scripted drama. Film-makers Joost and
Schulman push us to the edge of outrage,
then pull back in the nick of time.
USA)
Tabloid (Errol Morris,
More straightforwardly enjoyable
than Cfl^s/?- though also exploitative
of its deluded subject.
Monsters (Gareth Edwards, UK)
For surprising us with its collision
of road movie, romance and sci-fi.
Highlight: I first saw The Social Network
at a London press screening, but a couple
of weeks later I was in New York the day
it opened. Seeing it again on opening
night, at a packed megaplex on 42nd
Street - right film, right place, right time.
LEONARDO GARCIA-TSAO
Critic. Mexico
Carlos (Olivier Assayas)
Chicogrande (Felipe Cazals, Mexico)
An inner epic and a lucid critique of US
interventionism, done in the form of a
classic western. Even the genre themes
of loyalty and camaraderie are there.
My Joy (Schastye Moye) (Sergei Loznitsa,
Ukraine/Germany/Netherlands)
An unpredictable road movie into
Russian darkness, past or present. One
of the few true revelations of the year.
Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, USA)
Against most expectations, Scorsese
regained his mojo in this nightmarish
recreation of his protagonist’s mind.
Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich)
Highlights: 2010 for me was the year
I finally had my fill of the shabby
minimalist trend which, after a ten-year
run, has become in its own way as
formulaic, convention-ridden and self-
indulgent as any mainstream movie.
So allow me to make a pitch for
maximalism. Go for baroque, guys!
Don’t let the legacies of Von Sternberg
or Welles be forgotten.
30 Sight & Sound January 2011
I |
CHARLOTTE GARSON
‘Cahiers du cinema; France
V4nus noire (Black Venus) (Abdellatif
Kechiche, France/Italy/Belgium)
La Vie au Ranch (Chicks)
(Sophie Letoumeur, France)
Post Mortem (Pablo Larrain,
Chile/Germany/Mexico)
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Highlights: David D. Williams is a painter
and cineaste who teaches film at the
University of Virginia. His two
masterpieces, LillianOgg^) aj\d Thirteen
(1997), are included on a French-release
box-set that gives us the opportunity to
witness the synthesis of three aesthetics
- experimental, documentary, fictional -
in two piercingly beautiful female
portraits. In giving barely fictionalised
roles to his black neighbours and using
his own home as set, Williams gives new
meaning to the expression ‘home movie’.
Despite his selection at Sundance at the
- carried
start of the T 990 S, his lyricism
by the muted colours of i6mm - never
set a trend. But he remains, with Charles
Burnett, the most beautiful example of
American ‘folk cinema’.
Plus Mad Men; the best song heard
in a movie in a long time - the
autobiographical lament sung by artist/
madman Jean-Marie in Antoine Boutet’s
French documentary LeP/em pay9 Jean ,
Narboni’s stimulating little book on
The Great Dictator- Pourquoi les coiffeurs?
Notes actuelles sur Le Dictateur, Edward
Yang’s restored A Brighter Summer Day.
RYAN GILBEY
’New Statesman; UK
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Seeboxp.gb.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Apichatpong uses film language we’ve
encountered before, but assembles it in
such a way that we have the sensation
of stumbling upon a previously
undiscovered and uncorrupted tongue.
The Headless Woman (La mujer sin
cabeza) (Lucrecia Martel
Argcntina/Spain/France/Italy)
main
In a delicious reflection of the
character’s central conundrum - what
© Winter’s Bone Not
Lawrence’s
because
performance,
riveting lead
least
one of the best q uest movies ’ve seen in years,
its dark fairytale tests all the more compelling
because they are faced by a 17-year-old girl in
a dirtily real Ozark mountains setting. Lee Marshall
did I do? - the audience is left asking,
over and over, “What did we see?” Like
Lynch or Antonioni, it’s a mystery with
an infinite shelf life.
Greenberg (Noah Baumbach, USA)
In common with The Social Network, this
is also a comedy (of sorts) about an East
Coast Jew hitting California without the
benefit of any discernible social skills.
Here’s an arbitrary measure of this
haunting movie’s success: even Rhys
Ifans is good in it.
Gentlemen Broncos (Jared Hess, USA)
The Peddler (Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas
Marcheggiano & Adriana Yurcovich)
I’m cheating by smuggling two films
into fifth place, but these are snug
bedfellows, both of them in love with
the DIY ethic and the unruly joy of
imaginative storytelling.
JANE GILES
Head of content. BFI
Enter the Void (GasparNo^
Blinking man.' cllous, with one of the
best-ever opening credit sequences.
Totally immersive cinema.
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
The Runaways (Floria Sigismondi, USA)
Criminally underseen, it barely
scratched the box office, but this
gorgeous 1970s romp should be on the
syllabus at the Girls’ Own School of Rock
’n’ Roll Film Studies.
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
(Werner Herzog, USA/Germany)
My expectations for The Bad Lieutenant
were raised too high to deliver, but this
cheered me up no end with its dream cast
and flamingo hostages.
I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino)
Highlights: Watching Peckinpah’s
The Getaway in NFT i as part of the
Steve McQueen season - it surely trumps
The Killer inside Mein the Jim Thompson
adaptation stakes.
Judging the EIFF award for Best British
short film and being worried for days by
In the Meadow (directed by Dave
Alexander Smith) - Marcel Marceau
meets Michael Haneke.
Being moved to tears by John Krish’s
description of filming They Took Us to
the Sea, which screened on the opening
night of the BFI’s ‘Boom Britain’ post-war
documentary season.
of Jennifer
this was
I
Realising that the world wouldn’t end
with the death of Dennis Hopper.
CARMEN GRAY
Critic.UK
Aurora (Cristi Puiu)
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
(Andrei Ujica)
While the cinema of the moment
may have shifted to Thailand, for me
the year was still all about Romania.
My experience of these two films was
heightened by seeing them with a
packed and responsive local audience at
the excellent Transilvania International
Film Festival in Cluj. Puiu’s bleak,
blackly absurdist meditation on the
human will to kill is nothing short of
a medium-pushing masterpiece, while
Ujica’s reconfiguration of archival
propaganda material is just as
stunningly innovative in the realm
of documentary.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
TrashHumpers (Harmony Korine,
USAAJK)
How to Make a Book with SteidI (Jorg
Adolph & Gereon Wetzel Germany)
Brilliantly witty, unique documentary
about German publisher Gerhard Steidl.
Highlight: The resurrection of the
extended Metropolis, also screened
in Cluj, with live music.
NICK HASTED
Critic.UK
The Road (john Hiiicoat)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
Oil City Confidential (Julien Temple, UK)
Capitalism: A Love Story (Michael Moore,
USA)
Agora (Alejandro Amendbar, Spain)
Highlights: My most unpleasant surprise
in the cinema was watching the fatal
beating of Jessica Alba’s character in The
Killer inside Me, Michael Winterbottom’s
scrupulously well-intentioned, awful
moral and tonal misjudgement. The
happiest was De Niro in Everybody’s Fine,
finally playing the convincing ordinary
man he’d said he was aiming for in 1970s
interviews.A great actor’s unremarked
return, was more magically nuanced
it
and personal than any fiction Scorsese’s
managed lately.
NICK JAMES
‘Sight & Sound’
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Aurora (CristiPuiu)
This quotidian portrait of a man
contemplating violence builds in your
mind even after you’ve devoted three
hours to watching it Cinema’s own
Crime and Punishment
Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow
(Sophie Fiennes, France/Netherlands/UK)
This uncompromising documentary
about artist Anselm Kiefer’s landscaping
of a studio site in Barjac in the South of
France made an awe-inspiring pleasure
of the artist’s aesthetic rigour.
Mysteries of Lisbon (Raul Ruiz)
Le quattro volte (Four Times)
{Michelangelo Frammartino,
Italp/Germanp/Switzerland)
Few films feel as completely achieved
as this adroitly staged meditation on
life cycles in rural Italy.
Highlights: Standing briefly outside the
bounds of journalistic propriety, my
absolute highlight of 2010 was watching
(on television) my wife Kate Ogbom win
a television Bafta for Best Single Drama
as the producer of Samantha Morton’s
excellent film The Unloved On a more
professional level, talking about the
cinema of the last decade with a roomful
of Hungarian film-makers and cinephiles
at the delightfully modest Titanic Film
Festival in Budapest was another high
point, even if the Icelandic ash cloud
did mean I had to come home on a bus
that took 27 hours to reach London.
to the cinemagoing experience, jafar
Panahi’s poignant ode to the necessity
of creative freedom. The Accordion-mdide
before his imprisonment - played at
Venice to a lengthy standing ovation.
Also, the Lubitsch retrospective at
Locarno reminded me what a sublime,
mischievous talent he was. I was
particularly smitten by the midnight
screening of The Shop Around the Comer.
Best DVD release: Fassbinder’s World
onaWire{ig7^).
KENT JONES
Critic, US
Carlos (Olivier Assayas)
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Earlier this year, Olivier Assayas and I
did a talk at the Brooklyn Academy of
Music. He’d been asked to discuss a film
he admired, and he chose Zodiac. Early
on, he said he was struck more than ever
by the way that Fincher’s film found its
structural and dramatic inspiration in
reality itself. This is a hallmark of Carlos
and The Social Network and of the three
other films listed below - each in its
own unique way.
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
(Andrei Ujica)
Boxing Gym (Frederick Wiseman, USA)
Film socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard)
Highlights: For me, the great filmgoing
event of this past year was Bruce
Goldstein’s 3D festival at Film Forum in
New York. Apart from Dial M’for Murder,
which I’ve seen many times before, the
highlight of the series was Inferno
EDWARD LAWRENSON Muto of a freshly rediscovered John
‘Tie Big l^ue’, UK Ford movie. Upstream (igiy). It’s not
Aurora (Cristi Puiu) every day such films turn up, and in such
Enter the Void (GasparNoe) wonderful condition too. A comedy set
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu in theatrical digs, it strikes one as perfect
(Andrei Ujica) of its kind - a vintage work from one of
Nostalgia for the Light (Patricio Guzman) cinema’s old masters.
Mama (Yelena & Nikolai Renard, Russia) I’ve been following the discussion in
the pages of S&S about ‘slow cinema’.
MARK LE FANU Part of me doesn’t need to be convinced:
Academic and critic, UK in order to say anything interesting, one
If I Want to Whistle, Whistle (Eu cand
I needs to have the space, and the time,
vreau sa fluier, fluier) (Florin Serban, to do it in. And this is best guaranteed
Romania/Sweden) (other things being equal) by the kind
A magnificent prison-and-hostage of long-take cinema which anchors you
drama. Being Romanian, the film takes in the presence of the actors - and keeps
its time to unfold. Its mastery of mise en you there over a measurable period of
scene is one thing; its wisdom and time. On the other hand, there are no
humanity are even more impressive. absolute formulas, and intensity of
Medeni mesec (Honeymoons) expression can come in many guises:
(Goran Paskaljevic, Serbia/Albania) itcan also be swift, brutal, staccato.
Paskaljevic is one of the great European The key matter is integrity, and having
directors. Honeymoons, his latest, shows something to say worth listening to.
allhis characteristic sensuousness and
pessimism - one of the best films in COLIN MACCABE
recent history about the movement Academic & critic. UK
of people across boundaries. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Na putu (On the Path) Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
(Jasmila Zbanic, Bosnia & Herzegovina/ Of Gods and Men (Xavier Beauvois)
A ustria/Gemiany/ Croa tia Tamara Drewe (Stephen Frears, UK)
Its subject couldn’t be more topical: the IAm Love (Luca Guadagnino)
lure of Islam in the face of contemporary Carlos (Olivier Assayas)
Western secularism. How delicately Highlight: The screening of a restored
and bravely the director handles the print of Visconti’s The Leopard {Tg6f) at
matter. No cheating, no cliches: the Cannes. The film was once again superb,
film is dialectically intelligent and but the meditation on time passing was
psychologically penetrating. given several extra turns of the screw by
My Queen Karo (Dorothee Van Den Berghe, its presentation by the only two

I got a kick out of the ‘slow cinema’
debate we at Sff-S initiated, though a
look at these poll results will show there
was a deal of devil’s advocate about our
questioning of its dominance. It was a
great pleasure to present Uncle Boonmee
as the Sfi^Sscreening at the LFF. It would
be in my top five if not for my wanting to
give Le quattro volte a boost after noting
that most of my team colleagues had
voted for Boonmee.
The maddest moment was hearing
about the abolition of the UK Film
Council while queueing for the
videotheque at the Sarajevo Film
Festival.The best news would include
Clio Barnard’s double prize win at the
LFF awards for The Arbor- and the
completion of finance for Terence
Davies’s first drama film for over a
decade, The Deep Blue Sea.
DAVID JENKINS
‘Time Out London! UK
La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet
(Frederick Wiseman, France/USA)
Wiseman employs his primitive,
humanist observational mode to
present dance as an abstract form of
communication. A master on top form.
directed by the recently deceased Roy
Ward Baker. It crosscuts systematically
between Robert Ryan, a wealthy
businessman left alone in the mountains
with a broken leg, and his wife (Rhonda
Fleming) and her lover (William
Lundigan) enjoying the pleasures of a
swim, a well-cooked meal and a bottle of
wine in air-conditioned comfort. The 3D
accentuates rock formations, cacti, taut
lengths of rope, Robert Ryan’s big, long
body edging one crag at a time down
to the desert floor and on towards
civilisation. A tough, spare movie, a little
grandiose but exciting, it doesn’t take any
shortcuts getting Ryan off the mountain.
Best acting of the year, hands down -
Ruth Sheen’s staggering performance
in Another Year. I was hanging on every
gesture, just as I was 22 years ago when
I saw High Hopes.
Netherlands/Belgium)
A libertarian commune in Amsterdam
during the 19 70s is viewed through the
eyes of a child who ‘suffers’ the
experience morally, in the depths of her
little soul. But what an incredible child -
and what an extraordinarily conceived
set-up. The energy, colour and
inventiveness of the playing lift
this movie to a very high level.
Ajami (Scandar Copti & Yaron Shani,
Germany/Israel)
The best of the crop of excellent Israeli
films that have been hitting our screens
this year. I preferred it to Lebanon (good
in a different way). It does a difficult
thing,consummately, by seriously
addressing both sides of the most
intractable conflict of our time.
Highlights: For me this was the screening
at Pordenone’s Giomate del Cinema
members of cast and crew still living:
Alain Delon, startlingly beautiful as he
approaches 80, and Claudia Cardinale,
dissolving into giggles like a young girl.
LEE MARSHALL
Le quattro volte (Michelangelo
Frammartino)
The films that move and interest me, at
least outside the documentary format,
are increasingly ones that channel the
otherworldly quality of the cinematic
experience. This was one: a laconic,
sceptical, almost silent film about a
dying shepherd, a lamb, a dog, a tree
and a steaming mound of charcoal,
it dramatised the natural circle of life
and death without recourse to cute lion
cubs or talking meerkats.
Silent Souls (Aleksei Fedorchenko)
One of those rare films that takes the
world we live in and makes it strange
and new. With its blend of invented
folk traditions, free-floating symbols
and sympathy for people and places
on the margins, it reminded me of a
Borges short story. Not drama, not
mockumentary, definitely not realism,
it seemed to inhabit a whole new genre.

Alle Anderen (Everyone Else) Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik)

(MarenAde, Germany)
A ‘slow death of love’ movie every bit
as nuanced and blissfully maddening
as Scenesfrom a Marriage.
The Illusionist (Sylvain Chomet)
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
(Andrei Ujica)
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
One of America’s finest working
directors delivers a deliciously
range western with philosophical
undertones by the wagonload.
Highlights: Seeing Mizoguchi’s 1933
silent The Water Magicianwith benshi
narration and live koto score at the
Barbican added a novel new dimension
See box p. go.
The Illusionist (Sylvain Chomet)
Chomet’s film has meticulously
observed rural Scottish and Edinburgh
locations, but the fact that it’s animation
once again makes the familiar strange,
adding another layer to a poignant tale
of illusions, both of the conjuring and of
the human variety.
opaque Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece)
While I recognised the fashionably
quirky nature of Tsangari’s Venice
competiton entry, I also surrendered
completely to its oddball portrait of
intense father-daughter relationships
THE LEOPARD: “presented at Cannes by the only two cast members still living' and small town life and friendships.

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 31
1
2010 The Year in Review
ADRIAN MARTIN
Academic and critic. Australia
Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami)
Film social isme (Jean-Luc Godard)
Poetry (Lee Changdong)
Vincere (Marco Bellocchio, Italy/France)
Wild Grass (Les herbes folles)
(Alain Resnais^ France/Italy)
Highlights: It actually snuck in at the
very end of 2009: the special screening
of two 35mm films by Carmelo Bene,
Our Lady ofthe Turks{ig6S) and Salome
(1972), at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.
They were made under impossible
conditions, through the sheer force
of Bene’s considerable artistic will,
during the seven-year period in which
he devoted himself to cinema and
more or less abandoned the theatrical
experiments he had pursued since the
late 1950s, and to which he returned
until the end of his life in 2002. All the
dazed cinephiles who stumbled out of
these big, loud screenings grasped for
the predictable comparisons: Fellini,
Welles, Anger, Jarman, Schroeter,
Pasolini, Kubrick, Ruiz, Jack Smith, Joao
Cesar Monteiro... But no combination
of the known reference points will
suffice. Bene is utterly unique. As both
performer and director, he pulverised
language, revelled in what he called the
“surgical imprecision of montage”,
casually scandalised every standard of
conventional morality and lit a bonfire
of the classical traditions which he
nonetheless knew and respected deeply.
Bene is an avant-garde superstar in parts
of Europe, but is virtually unknown
in any English-speaking film culture.
Cinema history still hides its finest gems.
SOPHIE MAYER
Academic. UK
This Quality (Rosalind Nashashibi, Egypt)
This mysterious, engaging, thoughtful
work repays repeated viewings as a
film about the act (and art) of looking.
Apparently simple, the complex
moment of looking at a woman in public
space takes on resonance when followed
by shots of draped cars in Cairo’s streets.
Budrus (Julia Bacha, Israel/Occupied
Palestinian Territory/USA)
Rough around the edges cinematically
but incredibly thoughtful in its editing
and iconography - and utterly necessary
in its representation of non-violent
resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Double Tide (Sharon Lockhart,
USA/Austria)
Cinema as stillness, as labour and as
meditation - like a cool glass of water
in the middle of the hectic LFF.
Working Girls (Dorothy Arzner, 1931, USA)
Arzner’s ‘lost’ film screened as part of
a deeply enjoyable retrospective at the
London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
It’s a fast-talking and more liberated
precursor of screwball comedy, but
harder-edged (despite its sentimental
ending) in its intimations of single
motherhood and prostitution.
Highlights: The Agnes Varda season
at the BFI and on MUBI - for the
opportunity it gave to mingle and
compare Varda’s elegantly quirky
body of features with her lesser-known
documentaries and shorts, Mur murs
(1980) being a stand-out.
HENRY K. MILLER
Academic. UK
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Carlos (Olivier Assayas)
32 Sight
I & Sound I January 2011
A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY: “Edward Yang’s neglected magnum
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
(Edgar Wright, USAAJK/Canada)
Greenberg (Noah Baumbach)
Exit through the Gift Shop (Banksy)
Highlights: Frank Kermode, who died in
August, wrote very little on film, but his
extensive work on, and defence of, the
canon is especially pertinent at this time
of year. The terrible proliferation of lists
- not exactly thin on the ground through
the rest of the film calendar - might
lead you to dismiss it, and the seeming
availability of nearly everything might
make it seem irrelevant, but the canon
is more than a top ten. It’s a conversation,
in part, and as Kermode says in History
and Value, it’s finally inescapable. “If we
want the monuments, the documents
we value, we must preserve them in spite
of their evil associations, and find ways
of showing that their value somehow
persists in our changing world.”
That seeming availability of nearly
everything is, of course, just that, but
there are still more superb DVD releases
in a year than I can absorb (or afford).
The Lux’s John Latham Films 1960-1971 is
beautifully put together. I was also very
glad to see three of Thorold Dickinson’s
films - The Queen ofSpades (1949) and
Secret People ( 1 9 5 1 ) in particular - put
out by Optimum. Dickinson came
into the film business as an apprentice
of the director George Pearson; Judith
McLaren’s reconstruction of Pearson’s
t//fws quartet (1915-17), presented at
BFI Southbank, was an exemplary work
of scholarship, drawing on multiple
archives to bring to light something
unseen since its release in the age before
repertory film culture.
LISA MULLEN
Critic.UK
Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow
(Sophie Fiennes)
A ravishingly hypnotic record of the
work of landscape artist Anselm Kiefer,
who carves haunted spaces out of earth,
and water and fills them with
air, fire
troubling and enigmatic objects.
Addressing, almost wordlessly, the
interdependence of work and practice,
Fiennes finally appropriates Kiefer’s
conceptual wonderland to ponder the
relationships between film, art and truth.
Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, USA)
Searingly intense gothic melodrama
opus’’
with Natalie Portman giving the
performance of her life as a virginal
ballerina desperate to get in touch
with her dark side. Exhilarating and
exhausting: not since Powell and
Pressburger has the world of ballet
looked this blood-poundingly visceral
on screen.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (M3n
som hatar kvinnor) (Niels Arden Oplev,
Sweden/Denmark/Germany/Norway)
The definitive film adaptation of Stieg
Larsson’s first and best book, with
Noomi Rapace bringing unexpected
vulnerability to punk hacker Lisbeth
Salander. The Swedish which
title,
translates as “men who hate women”,
tells you everything you need to know
about its violent plot, but the chill winds
of time and regret also blow through
its snowscapes, to brilliantly
atmospheric effect.
Predators (Nimrod Antal, USA)
Producer Robert Rodriguez has his
fingerprints all over this devastatingly
efficient splatterfest, which strips the
man-hunting-alien concept back to
its cold-hearted genre essentials by
parachuting a mixed bag of flawed
humans on to the suffocating jungle
planet that the predators call home.
Capitalism: A Love Story (Michael Moore)
The exasperated outburst of a tattered
revolutionary, Moore’s latest diatribe
lacks the nimbleness of the director’s key
works, but still packs political punch. He
may not quite bring himself to say the
word ‘socialism’ out loud, but at least he’s
brought the obscenity of ‘dead peasant
insurance’ to the public’s attention.
Highlight: Went the Day Well? {1942),
Alberto Cavalcanti’s unsettling
propaganda piece about a sleepy village
invaded by Nazis in disguise, returned
to the big screen this summer to unnerve
a new generation with its subversive
take on the English rural idyll.
KIM NEWMAN
Critic. UK
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927, restored)
The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de
sus ojos) (Juan Jose Campanella,
Spain/Argentina)
The Bad Lieutenant Port of Call:
New Orleans (Werner Herzog, USA)
HANNAH PATTERSON
Critic,UK
Shed Your Tears and Walk Away
(Jez Lewis, UK)
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
The Arbor (Clio Barnard)
Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
Highlights: Alan Bennett discussing
his life and work at BFI Southbank; the
Branchage International Jersey Film
Festival, for its intimate and imaginative
one-off events staged in unusual local
settings; a host of illuminating
documentaries and Q& As at Sheffield
Doc/Fest (in particular, Marwencol and
Battlefor Barking).
Sloping off alone to watch Streetdance
3D in a morning screening (dance
movies, a guilty pleasure) and finding
three others in the audience - all teenage
boys - who proceeded to dance in the
aislethroughout; Man ofAran at Union
Chapel with live soundtrack by British
Sea Power; bizarrely complementary
double bills of Wall Street Money Never
Sleeps and The Social Network, and Precious
and Mugabe and the White African
The anticipation of seeing Joanna
Hogg’s new film Archipelago at the
London Film Festival, and being
unexpectedly moved by It’s Kind ofa
Funny Story.
NAMAN RAMACHANDRAN
Critic. UK/India
I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino) See box p.30.
Kray (The Edge) (Aleksei Uchitel Russia)
An old-fashioned action film - a must
for anyone with a love of steam engines.
Detective Dee and the Mystery of
Phantom Flame (Di Renjie zhi Tongtian
diguo) (Tsui Hark, Hong Kong)
Guy Ritchie should watch and learn
from this majestic period detective film
before desecrating Holmes again.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
(Niels Arden Oplev)
Endhiran (The Robot) (S. Shankar, India)
It’s man and
a riotous clash between
machine in India’s most expensive film
and highest-ever grosser, featuring the
country’s biggest star Rajnikanth as a
scientist, agood robot and an evil robot.
Highlight: Meeting and getting an insight
into the mind of Dibakar Banerjee,
whose LSD: Love Sex aurDhokha (Love,
Sex and Deceit) opened the London Indian
Film Festival. The film is based on the
concept of found footage, the entire
narrative seen through a voyeuristic
video camera, security camera or spy
cam. Made for just £140,000, it grossed
ten times that and flew high in the face
of bloated Bollywood disasters. It also
featured one of India’s first explicit sex
scenes, which was censored there but
shown uncut in the UK at festival
screenings. In his next film Shanghai, it
will be interesting to see how differently
Banerjee treats Vassilis Vassilokos’s novel
Z, so memorably adapted by Costa-
Gavras in 1968.
TONY RAYNS
Critic,UK
End of Animal (Jimseung ui Kkut)
(JoSeung-hee, South Korea)
The Home of Stars (ByeoldeuI ui
Kohyang) (Jung Yoon-suk, South Korea)
IWish Knew (Hai Shang Chuanqi)
I
(Jia Zhangke, China)
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Thomas Mao (Xiao Dongxi)
(Zhu Wen, China)
Highlights: 2010’s clear highlight was the
awarding of the Cannes Palme d’Or to
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives, one of several titles that should
really be in my top five - and would be,
if I hadn’t preferred to use some of the
slots for as-yet-unrecognised films.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul has been on
a whirlwind tour of festivals ever since
May, and his film has already opened in
several countries, not very successfully
in Germany and Italy, but gratifyingly
strongly elsewhere. Its triumph on the
Riviera prompted a remarkable polemic
from the Canadian critic Mark Peranson
in his magazine Cinema Scope, positing
an unbridgeable divide between “us”
(Apichatpong fans, and those in favour
of intelligent, non-industrial and
innovative cinema in general) and
“them” (fans of Mike Leigh, Mikhalkov,
Inarritu et This was the most
al).
enjoyable piece of writing on cinema
I read all year.
The other films that got my pulses
racing in 2010 would all go down well
with Peranson’s “us”. Most of them were
from East Asia. They include Li Hongqi’s
deadpan tragi comedy Winter Vacation,
the extended cut of Zhao Liang’s Petition,
Lee Sam-Chil’s very witty riff on Kafka’s
Metamorphosis and Japanese maverick
Hirabayashi Isamu’s two latest shorts:
Aramaki (on an attempt to aestheticise
a suicide organically) and Shikasha (on
a mysterious race against time), shown
in competition in Berlin and Cannes
respectively. But I also liked some
American indies: Foreign Parts by Verena
Paravel and J.P. Sniadecki, about a
scrapyard in the shadow of the New York
Mets’ stadium, and Aardvarkhy Kitao
Sakurai, a docudrama about a blind,
middle-aged ex-alcoholic and his
improbable friendship with a young
black jiu-jitsu instructor who
moonlights as an S&M rentboy.
NICK RODDICK
Ct5ic.UK
9:06 (IgorSterk, Slovenia/Germanp)
An existential thriller inexplicably
ignored by the festival
circuit, about a
cop coming apart at the seams as he
investigates a suicide.
The Bad Lieutenant Port of Call:
New Orleans (Werner Herzog)
Having interviewed Abel Ferrara
about the idea of a remake - “may they
rot in hell” was his fond wish for those
involved - 1 was supremely sceptical
about Herzog’s version. But not since
Fitzcarraldo has he produced so
magnificently loopy a film, shaping the
world to his own vision and redeeming
Nicolas Cage in the process (and that’s
saying something).
Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow
O The Arbor A brilliantly inventive escape from
(Sophie Fiennes) the dead end of British social realism, Clio Barnard’s
Tender Son: The Frankenstein Project
film tells the tragic story of Northern playwright
(Szeli'd teremtes: A Frankenstein-terv)
(Komel Mundruczo, Andrea Dunbar and her children. Fortuitously, alas,
Hungarp/Germanp/A ustria
it has also turned out to be the first real British film
Over the summer I met at least one other
person who thought this was the best of the Cameron era. Jonathan Romney
film shown at Cannes this year. Kornel
Mundruczo has a unique - and uniquely
bleak - world view, and his reimagining
of the monster is both closer to Mary
Shelley’s original than most versions and
a visually and conceptually stunning
film in its own right. The rest of the
world should eventually come round.
Monsters (Gareth Edwards)
Edwards barely sets a foot wrong in this
road movie-cum-love story-cum-sci-fi
thriller. It’s not just the effects he
achieves on a tiny budget - it’s that
the experience of what those effects
represent to the people in the film
is engaging and finally very moving.
Highlights: Two very different memories
to cherish. First, Alec Baldwin’s impishly
plus-size performance in the otherwise
rather dreary IPs Complicated His

TIM ROBEY
The Daily Tel^raph; UK
Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos)
For bite, formal audacity and hideous
implications, there was nothing to
match this.
I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino)
Poetry (Lee Changdong)
Forget the so-so noises out of Cannes -
magisterial on empathy and memory.
it’s
A Town Called Panic
(Stephane Auhier S' Vincent Patar)
Hilariously off the wall, this animation
blissfully refuses to settle down plotwise.
The Illusionist (Splvain Chomet)
Highlights:The unsung hero of this
year’s London Film Festival was
Columbia restoration expert Grover
Crisp, whose team’s glistening clean-up
jobs on Pza2zc(i955) and The Bridge on the
River Kwai(igs 7 ) provided the lushest
widescreen experiences had all year.
I’ve
In the same festival, which was in
general better than ever, the restoration
of Edward Yang’s street-gang epic
Brighter Summer Dapby Scorsese’s World
Cinema Foundation finally brought this
neglected magnum opus - which for
me just clips the bar of masterpiece -
back to light in the full cut Yang
originally approved. Back in February,
a first encounter with Bill Douglas’s
astonishing trilogy (Mp Childhood,
Ain Folk, Mp Wap Home, 1972-78) was the
highlight of my Berlin. With their sullen
soul and everyday lyricism, his films live
up to their reputation - and then some.
bedroom scene with a laptop webcam
more than makes up for Meryl Streep’s
O Carlos Olivier Assayas skipped the psychology
strident and simpering presence in other of terrorism in favour of depicting the Marxist
parts of the film, not to mention its
assassin-hijacker as the star of his own 21-year
snobbish homage to luxury lifestyles.
Second, the unforgettable experience action movie - a man whose need for sex and
of seeing Andrei Ujica’s extraordinary
commentary and caption-free liposuction confounds the notion of revolutionary
The Autobiographp ofNicolae Ceausescu, asceticism. Graham Fuller
not in Cannes or London, but with a
packed-to-the-rafters Romanian
audience in the Cinema Republica in
Cluj, a Stalinist palace of culture built
in Ceausescu’s heyday. Watching the
film was like experiencing a national
catharsis,complete with laughter and
tears.The Republica, I hear, is due to be
‘redeveloped’, which probably means
turned into a retail experience.
JONATHAN ROMNEY
The Independent on Sunday', UK
My Joy (Sergei Loznitsa)
The most overlooked film in the
Cannes competition, and still
A apparently without a distributor
in Britain. A troubling black-comic
weaving of narratives set on the
back roads of Russia, like Gogol put
through an ethno-documentary filter.
Le quattro volte
O Another Year The latest of Mike Leigh’s studies
(Michelangelo Frammartino)
of happiness and the lack of it. Generous yet not
Post Mortem (Pablo Larrain) indulgent to its characters, it’s a film during which
Mp on the Pinochet
Larrain’s absurdist take
coup proved more troubling and stirred one can find oneself changing one’s mind about
more debate than any other film in which characters are most to be pitied and most
Venice. It more than confirms the
perverse promise of Tonp Manero. to be admired. Ed Buscombe
Sight & Sound |
January 2011 33
1
2010 The Year in Review
Potiche (Frangois Ozon, France)
I lost my taste for camp some time ago
(probably around the time of Ozon’s
8 Women), but this reworking of a 1970s
stage farce was probably the most
enjoyable mainstream film of the year.
The Arbor (Clio Barnard) See box p.s 3.
Highlights: Casey Affleck’s solo press
conference for Fm Still Herein Venice,
when he proved a master poker player,
keeping everyone guessing about the
Joaquin Phoenix ‘documentary’.
Christian Marclay’s astounding
installation The ClockAt White Cube
Mason’s Yard: an assemblage of film
clips containing specific time references
which actually functions as a clock.
A witty essay on time and the ways we
experience it on screen. The Clock^was
mesmerising - one of the great
experiments with screen duration (and
a hell of a lot funnier than Empire State).
Worst film: Alejandro Gonzalez
Inarritu’s Biutiful- the absolute nadir
of the pious, leaden current wave of
international ‘state of the world’ movies.
JONATHAN ROSENBAUM
Critic. USA
CertifiedCopy (Abbas Kiarostami)
Kiarostami’s much-improved remake
of his (and weakest) fiction feature -
first
Report(ig77), about the break-up of his
own marriage - has its share of linguistic
and touristic irritations, along with
many thoughtful and beautiful
moments. It seems like a necessary
first step for a filmmaker who can’t
expect to go on making films in Iran.
Film social isme (Jean-Luc Godard)
See box p. 2 7.
The Forgotten Space
(Allan Sekula S' Noel Burch, Netherlands)
I feel a special affinity for films that
heroically attempt to say and do
‘everything’, even when they (inevitably)
fail. The most obvious example is Jia
Zhangke’s I Wish I Knew. But it seems
more useful to cite this much less known
essay film by Sekula and Burch about sea
cargo, which has taught me even more.
The Social Network (David Fincher)
I’m suspicious of instant classics, even
when I’m immensely entertained by
them, and I suspect that an important
part of the popularity of this bittersweet
Finch er-Sorkin comedy is its facile,
cynically jaded fatalism about the
corruptions of big business - a
backhanded celebration, as in Citizen
Kane send the first two Godfather fUms.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
See box p. 3 6.
SUKHDEV SANDHU
The Daily Telegraph; UK
The Clock (Christian Marclap, UK)
It seems like it has to be a gimmick, a
one-liner at best. Marclay, better known
as a sound artist, has created a 24-hour
film that excerpts and re-edits thousands
of existing films in which a wristwatch
or clock is shown telling the time. The
results are extraordinary: mysterious,
funny, strangely moving. It’s a dazzlingly
constructed reinvention of the city-
symphony film that also proposes a
completely new way of seeing cinema.
Voodoo Science Park (Steve Beard & Son, What Have Ye Done (Werner Herzog)
Victoria Halford, UK)
For a while now left-field British
directors have been moving in the
direction of the art gallery; perhaps,
with the publishing industry in a state
34 Sight & Sound January 2011
1 |
of ongoing retrenchment, left-field
towards
British writers will gravitate
the cine-essay as a more productive
home for their critical imaginations.
Here maverick theorist Steve Beard,
working with Victoria Halford, fashions
a fascinating, Keiller-esque meditation
on Hobbes’s Leviathan, the covert
geographies of Albion and post-
Ballardian crash theory.
Vapor Trail (Clark) (John Gianvito)
At 264 minutes, this is the first half of an
epic work of eco-cinema and memory
excavation in which the director of Profit
Motive and the Whispering Wind{2007)
explores, with patience and intense
lyricism, the calamitous legacies of the
US military presence in the Philippines.
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
(Andrei Ujica)
An uncommonly absorbing journey
through the life and times of the
Romanian dictator - grindingly dull
public rallies, hunting-trip home movies,
state visits to Universal Studios, the
tribunal that prefaced his bloody
death in 1989 - that makes a terrific
companion piece to Ujica’s (Harun
Farocki co-directed) Videograms ofa
Revolutioniiggf).
Knight and Day (James Mangold, USA)
Sometimes it seems that all of 2010 -
every plane journey I’ve been on,
every Netflix-subscriber’s flat I’ve
visited, every magazine I’ve opened
- has been owned by Tom Cruise and
Cameron Diaz. Perhaps I’ve been cine-
saturated into submission, but this
romantic thriller - full of gassy fades,
gauzy dissolves and creaky Euro
mobsters - is as frothily enjoyable
as seaside confectionery.
Highlights: One lunchtime at Cannes
thisMay I had the chance to sit next to
the filmmaker who has given me more
pleasure than any other living: Agnes
Varda. She spoke with a startling lack
of sentimentality about the ever more
rapid migration of cinema from the big
screen to the computer screen: “For me,”
she said, “it is not a problem. If you watch
a film on a laptop when you’re in bed, the
film is closer to your heart. Sometimes
you fall asleep. OK. Then you wake up
and you do not know what is the film
and what is your dream. This is perfect.”
I stared at her hands - even darker
with liver spots now than they were in
The Gleaners and I- and tried to imagine
AGNES VARDA: “a startling lack of sentimentality”
her playing Final Fantasy. We discussed
her photographs of pre-Cultural
Revolution China, debated at length
what makes a good dessert, studied
photographs of each other’s cats. By
contrast, this year’s Cannes Festival
couldn’t help but seem rather drab.
PAUL JULIAN SMITH
USA
Academic.
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Mysteries of Lisbon (Raul Ruiz)
Post Mortem (Pablo Larrain)
White Material (Claire Denis)
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
Highlight: Guillermo del Toro’s
appearance at Times Talks in the New
York Times building on 2 1 September
2010. In person del Toro proves to be not
only funny and self-deprecating but also
fearsomely erudite about the literary
tradition of horror (the occasion was
the launch of The Fall, his second co-
authored novel in a vampire trilogy).
He suggested that Bram Stoker’s original
Dracula could be seen as a response to
innovations in technology such as the
typewriter, which brought the old into
modernity. And he went on to show
how the digital effects he devised as a
filmmaker in, say, Hellboy emyiny
traditional hand crafted skills: in one
sequence, each tooth fairy in a swarm
of hundreds has a different face and
a distinct character. Tradition and
innovation, craft and technology: del
Toro is a a model auteur for our time.
FERNANDA SOLORZANO
Critic. Mexico
Nostalgia for the Light (Patricio Guzman)
A breathtaking documentary that
weaves the story of astronomers working
in a state-of-the-art observatory with
that of relatives of Chilean desaparecidos
looking for their remains. Their common
ground is the Atacama desert - home of
the trapped miners, a fact that enhances
the metaphors in the film.
The Bad Lieutenant Port of Call:
New Orleans (Werner Herzog)
Exitthrough the Gift Shop (Banksy)
Even if you’re in on the joke, it’s a great
portrayal of the artist as a fame-whore.
Leap Year (Aho bisiesto)
(Michael Rowe, Mexico)
A non-condescending stance on the
loneliness and sense of inadequacy
behind a woman’s self-destructive acts.
The Ghost (Roman Polanski)
Highlight: In 2010 Mexico
commemorated the centennial of its
revolution and the bicentennial of its
independence. It also turned out to be
an incredibly violent year, due to the
drug- trafficking wars. The irony didn’t
go unnoticed by director Luis Estrada,
who took advantage of the government
announcement to support “bicentennial
projects” and backlashed with El infiemo,
a film that blames politics for supporting
the narcs, and goes as far as to include
a photograph of President Calderon.
Echoing the scandal surrounding La ley
de Herodes, his 1999 film that put an end
to government censorship, Estrada hit
the right note by acknowledging the
non-festive mood - El infiemo's iagline
read:“What’s there to celebrate?” I for
one was thrilled to attend screenings
where, in spite of the grimness
portrayed, the audience stood up and
clapped at the end of the film - a truly
emotive reaction, and a reminder of the
power films have to create a sense of
community, even at the hardest times.
BRAD STEVENS
Critic.UK
Road to Nowhere (Monte Heilman, USA)
Heilman’s first feature film in two
decades is a triumphant return for one
of cinema’s masters, revisiting a familiar
theme - that of lives lost in obsessive
pursuit of meaningless goals - with
new depth and maturity.
At Ellen’s Age (Im Alter von Ellen)
(Pia Marais, Germany)
Demonstrating that The Unpolished'was
no flash in the pan, this masterpiece
offers further proof that Pia Marais is
among Europe’s most important
working filmmakers.
Napoli Napoli Napoli (Abel Ferrara, Italy)
and Mulberry St. (Abel Ferrara, USA)
Ferrara’s experiments in documentary,
including the earlier Chelsea on the Rocks,
are obviously part of a larger work in
progress, but it is already clear that they
relate to the director’sconcern with
performance as the central fact of our
existence. These are ‘documentaries’ in
which everyone who passes before the
camera is judged according to how well
or badly they play a ‘role’.
Dharma Guns
(F.J. Ossang, France/Portugal)
The latest and possibly finest film
from one of France’s young mavericks.
Imagine a George Romero zombie
film made in the style of Leos Carax.
Survival of the Dead (George A. Romero,
USA/Canada)
And let’s not forget the latest George
Romero zombie film made in the style
of George Romero! Generally dismissed
by the director’s admirers, this
remarkable work reminds us just how
perceptive a political commentator
Romero has always been.
Highlights: I also enjoyed Takeshis'
(Kitano Takeshi), Like You Know It All
(HongSangsoo), Un Lac (Philippe
Grandrieux), Vinccre (Marco Bellocchio),
Tj7san (James Toback), Visage (Tsai Ming-
liang). White Material {Claire Denis),
Bellamy {Claude Chabrol), The Dust of
Time {Theo Angelopoulos), My Son, My
and Ondine {Neil Jordan), as well as a
retrospective screening of Albert Lewin’s
The Living Idol{ig<37) and Channel 4’s
transmission of Mani Kaul’s
Duvidha{ig73).
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2010 The Year in Review
But for me the most important
cinematic ‘event’ of 2010 was watching
almost the entire oeuvre of Naruse
Mikio, something only made possible by
members of those online communities
dedicated to exploring areas of world
cinema neglected by conventional
distribution systems. Until recently,
English-speakers who have heard
that Naruse was among Japan’s finest
filmmakers could only view the six
titles released on DVD (or, if they lived
in London, the 21 titles included in BFl
Southbank’s 2007 retrospective). But
now, 59 of Naruse’s 67 surviving films
are available with fan-created English
subtitles (and another three with French
subtitles) for free download via such
services as Surreal Moviez, karagarga and
eMule. For discriminating cinephiles,
this is nothing short of a revolution.
ISABEL STEVENS
‘Sight & Sound’
La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet
(Frederick Wiseman)
A cinematic tour of the artistry but
also the sweat, toil and bureaucracy
occurring behind the normally closed
doors of the Paris Opera Ballet. It made
me want to pirouette all the way home.
The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel)
Forget 3D - Martel offered the complete
immersive experience in her portrait of
a confused woman in this hit-and-run
thriller-cum-commentary on divided
Argentine society. For 87 minutes the
only way to get out of this character’s
hazy mind was to leave the cinema.
Mnemosyne (JohnAkomJrah)
A musing on migration and memory
with the most unusual combination
of literary quotations, obscure archive
footage and stunning icy landscapes.
The Clock (Christian Marclay)
Real time meets reel time in Marclay’s
mind-blowing talking movie clock.
Compiled from over 3000 films, it’s
the most ambitious video mash-up yet.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Highlight: Gasping in unison with
hundreds of other people as the first
iceberg came into view during the LFF
screening of The Great White Silence. A
hundred years after Scott’s failed mission
O Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His
Past Lives Apichatpong Weerasethakul 's
breakthrough smash has the uncommon virtue
of trusting its audience to furnish
commentary and explanations - a virtue made
possible by its magical realism. Jonathan Rosenbaum
36 Sight
I
& Sound |
January 2011
to the Antarctic, Herbert Ponting’s
documentary can still thrill a cinema.
HEATHER STEWART
Cultural programming director. BFl. UK
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
The Arbor (Clio Barnard)
Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik)
How Ended This Summer
I death - and his career that once brought
(Alexei Popogrebsky)
Le quattro volte
(Michelangelo Frammartino)
Highlights: That Jeff Keen is finally
getting the international recognition
he deserves, with his films now playing
at this year’s New York Film Festival;
that the restoration of Ponting’s The
Great White Silence-was such a stand-out
event at this year’s LFF; Sarah Turner’s
Perestroika; The Larry Sanders Show and
Breaking Bad on DVD; The Edge ofthe
World on Blu-ray; and the extra 25
minutes of Metropolis.
VLASTIMIR SUDAR
Critic.UK
Silent Souls (Aleksei Fedorchenko)
The biggest surprise of the year -
haven’t seen a Russian film in a while
that so vividly invokes Tarkovsky,
without trying hard to do so. It’s an
incredibly humorous film too, although
its contemplations on love, identity and
transience - as in all great Russian art -
come across as very sad. A masterpiece.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His
Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
If I Want to Whistle. Whistle
I minutes of radiant high-contrast black-
(Florin Serban)
Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow
(Sophie Fiennes)
Carlos (Olivier Assayas)
Highlights: The nicest surprise - finally
a high-quality restoration ofPabst’s 1928
Pandora's Box, thanks to Berlin’s Deutsche
Kinemathek. The fact that the world’s
most ‘famous’ playboy, Hugh Hefner,
mostly paid for this demonstrates that
our commitment to the restoration of
film is still below any acceptable level.
And the lowpoint? The suicide of the
actor Bekim Fehmiu, who came to fame
playing a gypsy in Aleksandar Petrovic’s
I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1^67). An
ethnic Albanian from Kosovo, bom in
its own
Sarajevo (Bosnia), trained in Belgrade
(Serbia), he later acted in Hollywood
and numerous Euro co-productions of
varying quality. He was long aggrieved
that Yugoslavia imploded in inter ethnic
conflict, and after he suffered a stroke,
decided to end his own life. The Sarajevo
Film Festival gave a special screening of
the above film to commemorate his
these cultures together. The print came
from the institution still called the
Yugoslav Kinoteka, in Belgrade, but it
transpired that it’s in desperate need
of restoration. I wonder whether
Hugh Hefner will help this time?
AMYTAUBIN
Critic. USA
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Film socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard)
And Everything Is Going Fine
(Steven Soderbergh, USA)
Persecution
(Patrice Chereau, France/Germany)
Exit through the Gift Shop (Banksy)
plus prologue to episode 3 of
The Simpsons 2010-11 season
Highlight: Works by two artists with
roots in the 1960s provided experiences
sufficiently intense to briefly blot out
how dismal the unreal real world is. A
retrospective of movies by the American
avant-garde filmmaker Bruce Conner has
been touring since his death in 2008. At
New York’s Film Forum, the programme
kicked off with the electrifying music-
video precursor Cosmic Ray (igbi), five
and-white imagery set to Ray Charles’s
incantatory live recording of ‘What’d I
Sa/. It’s as dazzling and kinetic a pile-up
of movement and light as the final
sequence of Vertov’s Man with a Movie
Camera, and it’s also ecstatically carnal.
More contemplative but just as
encompassing an experience, Bruce
Nauman’s installation Days (sound and
minimal sculptural elements arranged
by the artist, movement in space
improvised by the viewers) isn’t in
an obvious way a movie. 1 doubt that
Nauman regards it as such, but I do.
Seven pairs of stereo speakers hang in
rows, between them a row of foot stools.
You can sit or mill about with the crowd.
OThe Social Network Like David Fincher’s
most exacting film ‘Zodiac! this is a forensic study
of an enigmatic outcast
according to his own desires and specifications -
and of the people left behind him to clear up or
make sense of the mess. Ryanciibey
People smile goofily at each other when
they realise what the sound coming from
the speakers is: a variety of voices softly
reciting the days of the week over and
over again, but not in calendar order.
Individual voices are clear only when
you’re close to a speaker. Otherwise the
sound is a hubbub composed of words
we have in common. Is there anyone
who doesn’t have the days of the week
constantly on call in her/his head?
DAVID THOMPSON
and documentarian, UK
Critic
The Ghost (Roman Polanski)
Polanski the classicist demonstrating
the art of narrative pleasure through
restraint and precision.
Carlos (Olivier Assayas)
Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos)
A truly original and disturbing view
of parental fascism.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His
Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Spellbinding, erotic and moving,
Apichatpong Weerasethakul continues
to reinvent cinema.
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Highlights: Two magnificent
presentations of silent cinema: the newly
restored (courtesy of Hugh Hefner!)
Pandora’s Box, looking as though it were
shot yesterday, premiered in Paris; and
Hitchcock’s Blackmail (igig) - the
superior silent version - at the Barbican.
Both were supplied with electrifying
musical scores by Neil Brand.
The Hong Sangsoo retrospective at
the BFl Southbank - exquisite, comic,
subtle, never predictable, the works
of a fine director scandalously never
distributed in the UK.
Two remarkable new British films
seen back to back at the London Film
Festival: The Arbor and Archipelago,
depicting totally different social worlds
in radically different styles, yet both
supremely rewarding.
Eavesdropping at a filming session
for a behind-the-scenes documentary
on Jerzy Skolimowski’s 1970 masterpiece
Deep End, I witnessed the reunion of its
starsJohn Moulder-Brown and Jane
Asher, who talked as if it had only been
yesterday, joshing each other like kinder
versions of their screen personae.
remaking the world
DANIEL TRILLING
New Statesman’ UK
The Nine Muses
(John AkomfraJi, Ghana/UK)
An evocative and unashamedly
highbrow essay on memory and
migration from the Black Audio Film
Collective founder.
Wojna polsko-ruska (Snow White,
Russian Red) (Xawery Zulawskk Poland)
Sex, drugs and politics in post-
communist Poland, with slapstick
performances and arresting
cinematography.
Videocracy (ErikGandini,
Sweden/Denmark/UK/Finland)
Not so much a documentary as a
psychological thriller about the power
of Berlusconi’s Italian media empire.
The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel)
A ghost story of sorts, but one where the
‘ghosts’ are Argentina’s poor, who haimt
the middle-class family at its centre.
The Time That Remains (Elia Suleiman,
Israel/I tal\;/Belgiunt/France/USA
A history of Palestine since 1948 as
seen through the story of Suleiman’s
own family - and his own, absurdist
approach to cinema.
Highlight: Renting out a large chunk
of Agnes Varda’s back catalogue and
watching one film a week over the
summer and autumn months.
KENNETH TURAN
LA Times'. USA
Animal Kingdom
(David Michod, Australia)
An arthouse crime saga that marks the
impressive debut of Australian writer-
director Michod, this moody modern-
day film nozV knows just how to revitalise
genre for contemporary audiences.
Inside Job (Charles Ferguson, USA)
Ferguson’s powerhouse documentary
about the global financial crisis restores
faith in films that shake the system
by having the intelligence to ask
provocative questions - and the
nerve to insist that they be answered.
Cinco dias sin Nora (Nora's Will)
(Mariana Chenillo, Mexico)
Though a big winner at Mexico’s Ariel
awards, this is the kind of film to which
attention is rarely paid. Funny, poignant
and tremendously appealing, it creates
fully imagined eccentric characters and
places them in a wryly comic world.
Writer-director Chenillo displays a great
sureness of touch in her first feature.
The Social Network (David Fincher)
White Material (Claire Denis)
Highlights: My most satisfying moment
was a Los Angeles screening of the
rediscovered-against-all-odds Fritz Lang
cut of Metropolis. Having this film come
back to life, being able to watch it with
a live performance by the great Alloy
Orchestra, and experiencing it all with
a capacity crowd of 2,200 in the still
vibrant Grauman’s Chinese Theater let
me feel more hope about the future of
cinema past than I usually allow myself.
GINETTE VINCENDEAU
Academic. UK
Gainsbourg (Gainsbourg, vie heroique)
(Joann Sfar, FranceAJK)
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Les Invites de mon pere (My Father's
Guests) (AnneLeNp, France)
Tout ce qui brille (HerveMimran &
G&aldine Nakache, France)
The Secret in Their Eyes
(Juan Jose Campanella)
PANDORA’S BOX; “newly restored courtesy of Hugh
Highlights: None of my highlights of
2010 have to do with new releases (alas).
They are: seeing a class of French eight-
year-olds (including my godson)
presenting the project they did with their
schoolteacher throughout the year
alongside their ‘normal’ work - writing,
designing and applying subtitles to a
short T950S Italian animation film.
The quality of their work and their
enthusiasm were fantastic.
And discovering a short 1906 film
directed by Alice Guy called Les R^ltats
dufeminisme, in which men push prams
and iron clothes while women smoke
cigars and put their feet up in cafes.
CATHERINE WHEATLEY
Academic and critic. UK
Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik)
Enter the Void (Caspar No^
It feels like 2010 has been dominated by
the uniformly sleek, ‘quality’ arthouse
movie, to the detriment of more
experimental fare, and it’s for that reason
that I’ve included Enter the Void. A failed
experiment, perhaps, and I have major
ideological reservations about Noe, but
at the very least it was trying to push
cinema in a new direction, raggedy
round the edges as it may have been.
The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel)
The Arbor (Clio Barnard)
I’ve shown an unconscious predilection
towards women filmmakers, Martel
and Barnard having produced two of
the more original films I’ve seen during
an otherwise fairly uninspiring year.
Bluebeard (Barbe Bleue)
(Catherine Breillat, France)
Lourdes (Jessica Hausner)
I’ve cheated and included six films not
five this year, because I really felt there
was so little to choose between this pair-
lovely, reined-in takes on the fairytale by
two of my favourite female directors.
Highlights: I’ll admit to some bias here,
but what’s been really exciting is seeing
colleagues and friends taking matters
into their own hands, getting their films
made and shown outside the usual
circuits. Guerrilla cinema it might not
quite be, but it’s great to see such small
gems as Steven Eastwood’s Buried Land
and William Brown’s Afierimages getting
made and screened. I’ll take those films
over the likes of the overblown and
overrated I Am Love any day of the week.
Hefner’’
ARMOND WHITE
’New York Post; USA
Wild Grass (Alain Resnais)
For our polarised era, Resnais makes a
constantly inventive fantasia on our
common idiosyncrasy.
Vincere (Marco Bellocchio)
Still vital, still relevant, Bellocchio
explores the neuroses of mass hysteria.
Mother and Child (Rodrigo Garcia,
USA/Spain)
Garcia delves into the meaning of
community through female experience.
Life during Wartime (Todd Solondz, USA)
America’s toughest satirist takes on
post-9/1 1 forgiveness.
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
Highlights: Bryan Ferry’s ‘You Can Dance’
music video, directed by Ferry Ck)uw, is
the single most sinuous - and sensuous -
piece of filmmaking this year. It perfectly
complements the recent DVD release
of three Josef von Sternberg classics
( The Last Command, Docks ofNew York,
Underworld) by continuing Sternberg’s
enraptured impression of eroticism as a
spiritual adventure. Crooner and pop
avant-gardist Ferry is seen performing
the song before a disco audience of
mesmerised models - indulging personal
fetish but recognising, like Sternberg,
unstoppable human compulsion.
Imagine Don Juan enchanted by and
serenading two dozen Dietrichs.
The most significant film event this
year is the continued passing of the
French NewWave pioneers, from
EricRohmer’s death in January to
Claude Chabrol’s in September.
And then the attempted besmirching
of Jean-Luc Godard tied to his insincere
semi-honour by Hollywood’s Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Godard briefly became media star of
the month when his refusal to attend
the event made him the first person to
publicly point out how the Academy
has reversed its own principles by
insulting honourees through relegating
sideshow event,
their awards to a
disconnected from the Oscars tradition.
If any filmmakers ever demonstrated
their respect for film history, it’s those
of the nouvelle vague. Their passion and
ingenuity are passing from our culture.
There’s no movement on the horizon
that can match their brilliance or
centrality or beauty. Let mourning begin.
SERGIO WOLF
Critic and director of BAFICI. Argentina
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His
Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich)
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
(Andrei Ujica)
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
Promises Written in Water (Vincent Gallo,
USA)
Highlights: During the last Cannes Film
Festival,met Cristi Puiu. His film
I
Aurora had seemed fascinating with its
winding and mysterious narrative. We
were in the cafeteria of one of the hotels
near the Grand Palais. It was a very
pleasant conversation. I tried to convince
Puiu to come to BAFICI, where his two
previous films competed.
We talked of Aurora, and in my
stubbornness to convince him to start
talking about his film and suicide, I told
a story of an Argentine writer who
committed suicide without leaving a
note - or the slightest clue about illness,
debts or a lovers’ quarrel. Puiu asked me
two or three times: “And he left no note?”
“No”, I replied, as I watched his face
darken. For ten minutes he sat in silence,
looking at his cup of coffee, or the
horizon. Had I entered a zone that
might be too private or personal?
Suddenly I looked at my watch and
remembered he had another interview
scheduled. I offered to walk him there.
His mild and ironic humour returned,
but I couldn’t help thinking that the
shadow of death that lurks so insistently
in his films - especially Aurora - had
come between us, as if somehow we were
an episode of the film dismissed in the
but imbued with the same fate.
final cut
ADRIAN WOOTTON
CEO. Film London
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
Dark Love (L’amore buio)
(Antonio Capuano, Italy)
The Killer inside Me
(Michael Winterbottom)
Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich)
Highlight: As I never imagined I’d ever
meet Bruce Springsteen, the opportunity
to interview him on stage at BFI
Southbank to accompany the premiere
of the documentary The Promise {about
the making of his album Darkness on the
Edge of Town) was in itself an exciting,
more than slightly scary and wondrous
experience. But it was made even more
magical- and a little bit surreal -by
hearing him talk eloquently and
enthusiastically about the importance
to his songwriting of B movies and film
noir, especially Out ofthe Past.
BARBARA WURM
Critic and programmer, Austria
Kosmos (RehaErdem, Turkey)
My Joy (Sergei Loznitsa)
Aurora (Cristi Puiu)
Hitparkut (Nina Menkes, Israel)
Guest (Jose Luis Guerin, Spain)
Highlights: Filmmakers discussing
their work in some magical Q&As at
the Viennale: Larry Cohen - shrewd,
smart and hilariously ironic - and Cristi
Puiu, who bared his soul, revealing a
thoughtfulness bereft of any pretension.
H Separate polls of the best DVDs and best
online video clips of 2010 will be available
online at www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound
firom 14 and 21 December respectively
Sight & Sound I January 2011 37
1
Famousfor his experiments scratching directlp on to celluloid, New Zealander Len Lye
was a trailblazerwho moved between the cinema and the art gallery. By Ian Francis
FREE RADICAL
en Lye went on strike in 1958,
announcing that he wouldn’t be
L
making another film until a sponsor
came forward with the funds necessary
to realise his ideas. Lye had built his
reputation in the 1930s, repainting
drizzly London in psychedelic Gasparcolor with a
series of short films commissioned by the GPO
Film Unit to extol the virtues of the cheaper parcel
rate or printing your postcode clearly. Initially he
worked by painting and stencilling directly on to
celluloid, blazing a trail for a completely new
approach to filmmaking.
Whether or not the messages comically tacked
on to the likes of A Colour Box or Rainbow
Dance (1936) had their intended impact, these
rough-edged, rhythmic animations dazzled audi-
ences and contained a wealth of innovation made
possible by the trust of GPO Film Unit head John
Grierson. If he could find such support on this
small island, reasoned Lye, surely the USA would
be crawling with opportunities? After a stint
directing wartime propaganda, in 1944 he took a
job at March ofTimds New York office and began
the next stage of an extraordinary creative journey
that had begun on the coast of southern New
Zealand at the turn of the century.
Unfortunately, Griersons proved hard to come
by in America. Lye spent many years enthusiasti-
cally pitching to nonplussed broadcasters and
advertising execs, meeting with only limited
success. (Mad Men viewers might like to imagine
“a slim, wiry man looking like a close relative of Ho
Chih Minh, dressed in a jolly red sort of a kaftan,”
gracing Don Draper’s office with a short-lived
cameo.) Chrysler funded a one-minute film called
Rhythm(ig^y), which combined jump-cut footage
of their production line with tribal drumming; it
won first prize at the New York Art Directors
Festival, but was disqualified because the film
was
never aired. Even work was thin on the ground.
if
Lye was exhilarated by the city itself and swam
freely in the local art and music scenes, seeking
new contexts for his films by using them as back-
drops in jazz clubs or projecting them on to shop
windows for passers-by.
Increasingly detached from his English films,
which he dismissed as “glorified commercial
spots”. Lye returned to his original celluloid exper-
iments of the early 1920s, inspired by the scratches
found on film leader. This time he went at black
film stock with a range of implements found at
street markets - dentist’s picks, hacksaw blades,
compass points - and began to create “white zig-
zag-splutter scratches” that seemed to float and
twitch in the void.
The technique reduced film to its bare essence,
but it was neither cheap nor quick, so when an
invitation arrived to participate in an experi-
mental cinema competition in Brussels, Lye seized
on the chance to convert the doodle strips hanging
38 Sight & Sound January 2011
I |
PIPE DREAMS
Len Lye, above,made his name at the GPO Film Unit
inthe 1930s with vibrant, innovative animations
such as ‘Rainbow Dance’, facing page
around his studio into a four-minute work scored
by the mesmeric percussion of the African Bagirmi
tribe. Free Radicals (1958) picked up a prize and
$5,000, and it’s arguably the closest Lye got to
perfection. Nonetheless it still lost money, and
shortly afterwards his strike began.
To ditch cinema in favour of a whole new career
when on the verge of turning 60 might look like
professional suicide. In fact Lye never really aban-
doned filmmaking, and more to the point he had
always worked across different disciplines, from
batiks and paintings reflecting his love of tribal
iconography to freewheeling prose poetry and
earth constructions built long before land art had
been conceived of. Within film too there were
experiments with found footage, puppet anima-
tion, handheld verite and photograms, all carried
out with a imique combination of rigour and
complete openness. As Alberto Cavalcanti, his
former employer at the GPO Film Unit, put it in
Sight & Sound in 1947: “Len Lye is a superb
craftsman. There is no dilettantism about him and
no false virtuosity.”
- or “tangibles”, as Lye
Kinetic sculptures
them - offered a natural avenue
preferred to call
for a man whose stock-in-trade was motion.
Instead of doodling with a pencil or a needle, he
took up a piece of steel and waggled it to see what
would happen - an approach that followed his
own manifesto from the 1930s: “Up to a certain
point we must leave physical things alone and let
them speak for themselves, in movement.” This
nascent artform was a relatively open field for a
champion of intuition and “old brain thinking”,
with an abiding suspicion of intellectual labels.
And rather than having to hunt down sounds to
accompany the images, these figures of motion
came with their own ready-made soundtrack,
chiming and thundering as they built in intensity
with a clamour that connected straight back to one
of Lye’s earliest memories. The experience of
kicking a kerosene can around the yard as a small
boy stayed with him all his life - the “echo of tinny
clashes” and “great flash of quivering sunlight”
which it gave off - and he saw the tangibles as a
form of energy transfer that would stop people in
their tracks just as that tin can had done for him.
One of the first tangibles he made was Blade
(1959), a tall, upright strip of steel like a saw blade
planted in a circular plinth that conceals a motor.
Next to the blade is a rod topped off by a cork ball
(originally a ballcock from a toilet cistern). The
blade begins to vibrate back and forth, gently at
first, then building up to languid wave patterns, an
‘S’ followed by a figure of eight. After much antici-
pation, blade makes contact with ball, which duly
pings backwards and enters the dance. Following
a couple of elegant gear shifts and a frenzied
climax, the two partners return to stasis, spent.
This carefully planned performance, slightly
different every time, can provoke awed grins or
embarrassed sniggers in gallery visitors - often
both at once (the sexual subtext is hard to miss).
Just like the blotches and squiggles of Free Radicals,
though, it resists any one particular interpretation.
Other steel dancers followed in the 1960s: Universe
(large loop with suspended ball). Fountain (cluster
of rotating rods), Grass (swaying fronds) and
Roundhead (four concentric rings strung together).
Their movements tended to be choreographed
with a beginning, middle and end, lasting about as
long as one of the short films and once again
confirming Lye’s deep understanding of time and
rhythm. In 1961 a whole troupe of them
performed for one night at New York’s Museum of
Modem Art, their creator hopping amongst them
in his tool belt making minor adjustments to keep
the whole show on the road. It was an event that
positioned Lye at the vanguard of an emerging
group of kinetic sculptors, the ‘movement move-
ment’ - although artists like Jean Tinguely and
Nicolas Schoffer were more preoccupied with the
technical dimension of their work.
Lye was not an engineer. His prime motivation
was to make the floor shake and stir up some
wonder - to bring a sense of Aztec ritual into the
gallery. Rapidly outstripping the available tech-
nology and resources, his ideas were confined to
sketchbooks until such time as the world saw fit to
catch up - most ambitiously, a kinetic temple in
the desert. A version of Universe 60 feet
tall would
form the entrance to a family of enormous tangi-
 including an “undulating sea serpent” emit- The process of gathering up this jumbled legacy
bles,
ting 6 million volts of electricity from its tongue by
Initiallyhe worked by began in the 1970s, driven by Lye’s second wife
way of a finale. painting directly on to Ann. After half a century away, she encouraged a
When outlining these notions, Lye was quite return visit to New Zealand, and coming full circle
prepared for scepticism, but he never let it limit his celluloid, a completely gave the artist an opportunity not only to recon-
horizons. This was someone who hit on a vocation nect with his past but also to meet supporters who
- composing with motion - as a teenager on his
new approach to would take on the role of custodians and curators.
paper round, and then stuck with it his entire life, filmmaking His home country’s first nod to its prodigal son
following it wherever it took him. Significant may have been a TV documentary called
resilience was involved, and a notable lack of the tradition of self-sufficient, bloody-minded Len Who?, but New Zealand became home to the
interest in how his work might be received. Asked universe builders like William Blake or Alasdair Len Lye Foundation and has produced the
in a 1963 interview whether his films were made Gray, working with whatever tools are available to definitive piece of Lye scholarship in Roger
for any particular audience, he replied: give his ideas life while paying little heed to Horrocks’ 2001 biography.
“Oh, goodness, no. They were just made for me... fashion or finances. At the Foundation’s base in New Plymouth,
My excitement in life was to discover something This is partly why Len Lye is nowhere near as plans are afoot for a Len Lye Centre; on the seafront
that’s exciting to me. Now how the hell can work I well known as he should be. It doesn’t help that his you can find 45 metres of red fibreglass bobbing in
it out if it has to be significant to an audience? It’s works are scattered across different eras and the breeze: a scaled-up version of the Wind Wand
the last thing on earth I’d be interested in.” artforms, or that experimental cinema and kinetic that Lye first road-tested on an empty lot in Green-
sculpture have had very little to do with each wich Village 50 years ago. Shortly before he died in
Universe builder other. There have also been practical obstacles: 1980, Lye was given a grant that enabled him to
Lye has often been bracketed with another pioneer availability of the films being limited to VHS revisittwo of his most precious films - Free Radicals
of direct cinema, his GPO colleague Norman copies and i6mm prints that carry as many acci- and its sister piece Particles in Space (1966) - and
McLaren, but undoubtedly
although they dental scratches as deliberate ones; galleries complete them to his satisfaction. “We take our
influenced and admired one another, the above nervous of hosting sculptures that vibrate happy moments to the grave, but art lives,” he
response gives some indication of where they violently and require constant maintenance. wrote. Now the circle continues, and for the first
differed. For all his experimentation, McLaren was Developments in technology have eased these time in the UK an exhibition has brought together
acutely aware of his audience. With Flicker Film issues; as Lye himself predicted, he seems to make under one roof the full spectrum of this pulsating
(i96r), for example, he predated the optical more sense in the 2 ist century. We are now used to “one-man modem art movement”.
barrage of structural cinema by a good few years, artists shuttling between the gallery and the
only to shelve it because it was “too esoteric, even cinema. So much of the visual language he helped The exhibition Ten Lye: The Body Electric' is at
for me”. And although Lye may have envied the to develop has been absorbed into mainstream Ikon Gallery, Birmingham until 13 February 2011.
safe haven offered to McLaren by the National Film culture.Above all, Lye’s was a vision profoundly Len Lye'sfilms are available on the Re-voir DVD
Board of Canada, it’s impossible to imagine him rooted in movement and sensation, one which Rhythms'; his GPOfilms are available on the BFI's
staying put within the same institution for over 40 resonates all the more powerfully in an age of 'GPO Film Unit Collection' DVDs, vol i 'Addressing
years, as McLaren did. Lye belongs more firmly in digital disembodiment. the Nation' and vol 2'We Live in Two Worlds'

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 39
1
COUNTER
CULTURE
40 Sight & Sound January 2011
I |

Nick James dissects the unique tonal touch employed by
Ernst Lubitsch in ‘The Shop Around the Comer] which
out its romantic confection with a moving portrayal
fills
ofeconomic desperation we can empathise with today
rnst Lubitsch grew up in Berlin as the
son of the Russian Jewish emigre
owner of a dressmaking company.
E
play to the
He knew the world of shops and they
feature often in his films. Perhaps
witnessing the patter of his father’s
employees - the centrality of role
of a salesman - encouraged the
life
young Lubitsch to play roles, and drew him
towards acting as a profession. Before he became
a director, he was a successful self-mocking char-
acter actor, on the German stage for Max Rein-
first
hardt and later in films. That he should end up in
Hollywood seems a natural progression for a
Jewish sophisticate trying to escape his trade roots.
Jewish traders of European extraction, such as
Adolph Zukor (furs), Carl Laemmle (retail
clothing) and Louis B. Mayer (scrap metal),
founded the Hollywood studio business. There
was always an affinity between ‘putting on a show’
to sell shop items and ‘putting on a show’ in
movies. In his seminal 1988 book An Empire of
Their Own, Neal Gabler says that the Jewish traders
made “a sustained attempt to live a fiction and to
cast its spell over the minds of others”. Lubitsch
moved to Hollywood at the invitation of Mary
Pickford after the international success of his
historical dramas Madame DuBarry (1919) and
Anna Boleyn (1920). She hired him to direct her in
Rosita (1923), and though they didn’t get on that
well, Lubitsch remained in Hollywood and
flourished as one of its most accomplished artists.
In the context of The Shop Around the Comer, it is
easy to imagine the young Lubitsch as Pepi, the
teenage errand boy of Matuschek and Co. played so
brilliantlyby Wiliam Tracy as the sharpest
Budapest street kid turned legit. Pepi constantly
complains that the pampered wife of proprietor
Mr Matuschek runs his legs off after hours, so his
favourite occupation is to imitate her in a high
voice: “Pepi,
please pick
go to the dressmaker. Oh Pepi, will you
up a package at the drugstore?”
Of course, Lubitsch’s father did not work in a
leather-goods store, and in any case the film was
based not on any Lubitsch autobiographical
matter but on Nikolaus Laszlo’s 1936 play
Parfumerie, but we know that one essential ingre-
dient of what came to be known as ‘the Lubitsch
touch’ is that the director would act out every role
for every actor he was directing. This is what
accounts for the extraordinary consistency of tone
in his films, including those that he produced but
were directed by the likes of Frank Borzage and
Otto Preminger. A talent for mimicry, pretence and
persuasion was the foundation of his approach.
When attempting to describe ‘the Lubitsch
touch’, however, some of the most vivid examples
are visual rather than performative. The opening
sequence of Trouble in Paradise for instance,
startswith a shot of a dustbin. A man enters the
scene and picks up the dustbin, but it’s only as he
walks to a canal to dump the garbage into a
gondola - breaking into ‘O sole mio’ having done
so - that we see Venice glittering at night, the
gorgeous setting for this most exquisitely cynical
true-love tryst between two jewel thieves who
can’t resist fleecing each other during seduction.
There’s a more complex definition of ‘the
Lubitsch touch’ that I’ll touch on later, but by the
time he made The Shop Around the Comer in 1940
Lubitsch’s brand of expectation rug-pulling had
become ingrained in what was expected of a Holly-
wood movie. Indeed, it is often argued that it was
Lubitsch, not D.W. Griffith, who was the true
author of the dominant style (rather than the
dominant technological approach) of Hollywood
cinema in its golden years. “He invented the
modem Hollywood,” Jean Renoir once said. “The
man was so strong that when he was asked by
Hollywood to work there, he not only didn’t lose
his Berlin style... he converted the Hollywood
industry to his own way of expression.”
The Shop Around the Comer almost entirely
concerns the eight people who work at Matuschek
and Co., although one superlative aspect of the
film is how much of what happens off screen is a
pertinent part of the narrative - not least Mrs
Matuschek, whom we never see nor hear. Mr
Matuschek (Frank Morgan) is an ageing proprietor
whose lifelong business instincts are no longer a
match for those of his chief salesman Alfred Kralik
(James Stewart), whom Matuschek is grooming to
take over as manager. The film begins the morning
after Kralik has been a guest at the
home and both are feeling bilious from “too much „
goose liver”. They have a disagreement about some
cigarette boxes Matuschek wants to buy that play
the repetitive Russian folk melody ‘Ochi Tchomya’
when you open them. Kralik, rightly, thinks they |
Matuschek
p
3
won’t sell; Matuschek is annoyed with him. i
The rest of the shop’s staff includes: Pirovitch
|
(Felix Bressart),an unassuming family man, and
|
the film’s moral centre in whom everyone |
confides; in contrast is Vadas (Joseph Schildkraut),
|
a dandy of a certain age feared by everyone as “a rat S
and stool pigeon”; there are two ladies, the demure
Sight & Sound |
January 2011 41
 Ernst Lubitsch The Shop Around the Corner
Though Lubitsch’s films are always
graceful and light and designed for
maximum viewing pleasure, there’s
an underpinning of real circumstance
^ Flora (Sara Haden) and the shopaholic Ilona (Inez
Courtney), who stay mostly in the background;
and the newest member, Klara Novak (Margaret
Sullavan), who comes in from the street to be met
by Kralik as a customer when she’s really a shop-
girl after a job. The Kralik-Novak relationship goes
further down the wrong track when, to get the job,
Klara sides with Mr Matuschek on the issue of the
cigarette boxes and manages to sell one as a “candy
conscious” box, whose tune will remind you every
time you succumb to a piece of candy that maybe
you should cut down on your consumption.
What neither Novak nor Kralik knows as they
bicker and demean each other all day is that each
is the other’s romantic pen-pal. This is
spectacular social irony that ‘the Lubitsch touch’
feeds on, but it is absolutely bound in to the social
position in which its protagonists find themselves.
The story originates in the Great Depression, about
people for whom the magic words are ‘paycheque’,
‘bonus’ and ‘raise’. Though Mr Matuschek will
turn out to be a benevolent figure (indeed, his staff
count keeps on increasing while the shop remains
mostly empty - at least until the Christmas
climax) his whims are potentially lethal, as Kralik
discovers when he is summarily ‘let
disagreement, albeit with a shining reference.
Though Lubitsch’s films are always graceful and
light and designed for maximum easy viewing
pleasure, there’s a solid underpinning of real
circumstance to The Shop Around the Comer. One of
the most fascinating aspects of Hollywood film in
itsheyday is the economical use of space. There are
only three scenes in the film that occur away from
the shop: the cafe where the pen-pals are supposed
to meet - although Klara doesn’t find out for some
time that the Kralik she meets and thoroughly
patronises was her blind date; Klara’s bedroom,
where she takes sick after her beau doesn’t seem to
ROCK STAR
The dynamics of
US television series
‘30 Rock’ share some
of ‘the Lubitsch touch',
in the interaction of
Liz Lemon (Tina Fey)
and Jack (Alec Baldwin)
42 Sight & Sound January 2011
I |
Summertime (1949) is an entertaining musical
remake starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson,
but no threat to a livelihood can matter much in a
musical. The yuppie protagonists of the regrettable
You've Got Mail (1998), played by Meg Ryan and
Tom
selves
Hanks, are also unlikely ever to find them-
on skid row, whatever the film’s outcome.
A better contemporary place to find traces of
Lubitsch is in the television comedy series 50 Rock
If the writers of that show don’t have Billy Wilder’s
famous sign “How would Lubitsch have done it?”
hanging up, it must be because it’s printed on the
lids of their lattes. To give you one brief example,
show; and the hospital room where Matuschek the show’s low-self-esteem heroine, comedy-show
ends up for reasons you’ll have to watch the film to producer liz Lemon (Tina Fey), is asked on a date
discover. Everything else happens either just to a high-glamour party by “the hair” - the kind of
outside the shop or in the shop’s four spaces: the handsome guy she considers way beyond her
main hall, Mr Matuschek’s office, the staff room league - and can’t cope. She walks out of the party
and the stockroom, to which Pirovitch disappears and he runs after her into a shop, where she
whenever he hears Matuschek announce, “All I explains to him that they’re chalk and cheese
want is your honest opinion.” All this would while she waits to pay for an item. When the shop
reinforce the idea that the shop is the world and a owner refuses to change her $ 100 bill, they both
sort of prison - you have to make it there or fail - if turn and berate him in exactly the same words -
it were not for the evocatively deft way that the “You can’t do that. It’s illegal! ” - and find what they
world outside is conjured from withia have in common: a petty sense of entitlement.
This is a yet more sophisticated version of This scene scores in at least one of the three
Lubitsch’s famous propensity for making the audi- components of Jonathan Rosenbaum’s breakdown
the kind of ence imagine what’s going on behind a closed of ‘the Lubitsch touch’. Lubitsch, like the 50 Rock
door. From just a few grace-notes we can picture writers, has i) “a way of regarding his characters
Pirovitch’s modest home life, what it must be like that could be described as a critical affection for
to have dinner at Mr Matuschek’s house with his flawed individuals who operate according to
flirtatious wife (too much goose fiver and all), and double standards”. As for 2), while we may no
where, after all, the vile Vadas’s tokens of “good longer five in an age when the “European capacity
luck” come from. More refined stiU is the moment to represent the cosmopolitan sophistication of
when, towards the end, Klara describes her early continental Europeans to Americans - and with a
feelings about Kralik to him - we become aware double edge” matters so much, we still find the
that Lubitsch and Sullavan have given us not the same dynamic in the way that 30 Rocks Jack (Alec
slightest indication of these feelings, so we’re even Baldwin) regularly forces an unwanted double-
go’ after a invited to reimagine what we’ve already seen. edged sophistication of high glamour and preten-
Perhaps the simplest example of making the invis- tiousness on Lemon. In the case of 3), however, “a
ible imaginable, though, is when Pepi says to Mr graceful way of handling music as an integral part
Matuschek near the end: “You see that girl over of the film’s 30 Rock utterly
construction,”
there on the comer? Well, I’m her Santa Claus.” fails. Which shows team of hotshot
that even a
Lubitsch knows he doesn’t need to show us the girl. American television writers can’t really compete.
When others try to reproduce ‘the Lubitsch Returning to those neglected figures, the lovers
touch’, comes a cropper. There have been
it often of The Shop Around the Comer, we’re back with
two remakes of The Shop Around the Comer and people who, in the terms of the old deference,
neither works. Among the many reasons why, the know their place - something that politicians and
most obvious they share is that they lack the fear financiers in the West seem to want us all to
of unemployment that underpins the humour in relearn. The dreams of sophistication of the shop
the story -and that might make it pertinent again assistants revolve around a love of language and
for contemporary audiences. In the Good Old literature, of reading Anna Karenina and Crime and
Punishment James Stewart’s doleful lapdog seri-
ousness meets Margaret Sullavan’s preening
pretension most beautifully in the following
exchange in which Kralik now knows that Klara is
his correspondent, but she remains ignorant - as is
clear when she disparages him in comparison to
her pen-pal: “I really wouldn’t care to scratch your
surface, Mr Kralik, because I know exactly what I’d
find: instead of a heart, a handbag; instead of a soul,
a suitcase; and instead of an intellect, a cigarette
fighter... that doesn’t work.” His response is, “Well,
that’s very nicely put.” You get the feeling that if
Ernst Lubitsch stabbed you, you’d feel grateful
somehow and the wound would heal in a minute.
'The Shop Around the Comek is rereleased in
selected cinemasfrom 10 December
 Southbank

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 THE
MARK
OF
KANE
With Sight & Sound’s
once-in-a-decade
Greatest Film ofAll Time
fp
—

poll looming in 201 2,

David Thomson launches
a series ofoccasional
debates on the canon,
here wondering whether
'Citizen Kane’ will- or
should- retain its top spot

o you have time for a few words on

the 201 2 election? No, not that one -

D
1 refer,

stage in 2012.
It is
I

his
fear that Barack

afar.
own
Obama
future, or surveys
That November decision is too
grave and frightening to talk about.
instead, to the election this magazine will

in years ending with 2,

controls
it from

you may recall, that

Sight & Soundbiings back its poll of critics, writers
and filmmakers on the best films ever made. The
Top Ten. Now I don’t mean to get involved with all
ten, or not immediately. My worry is over number
one. Citizen Kane, the picture that won this poll in
1962, 1972, 1982, 1992 and 2002.
Such steady glory has made Orson Welles’s
picture a kind of password. Nowadays Citizen Kane
stands for all of cinema, and I am not about to
suggest that it deserves less than that mind-
numbing I regret the numbing of
status. Still,
minds and wonder whether this automatic
I

authority has stopped young people from seeing

the 1941 picture, or really looking at it when they
do sit there in the dark with it? If it wins again in
2012, that will be 50 years in which it has been top
- and that can turn the ‘top’ from a real place into^

THE CANDIDATE
‘Citizen Kane’, right,has
triumphed at the but is
polls,
‘The Magnificent Ambersons’,
top left, the true masterpiece
of Orson Welles, bottom left?

44 sight & Sound January 2011

1 |
 (j)

DESIGNS

AND

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 45
1
 The greatest film of all time?

^ a rather hollow idea. Kane begins to resemble editor of an instrument of the British Film Institute
Queen Victoria (and she reigned 63 years). (not the most secure body in a shaking culture), he
Please don’t jump on this modest request to would concede that the poll has to run. If there is
think carefully. have admitted many times (too
I wisdom in forgoing it - in saying, “Come along
many?) that Kane changed - or focused -
Citizen now, children, we’re beyond this” - there is also a
my life. I love the film, and not just for its alleged weary recognition that kids now demand fun as a
technical innovations (like deep focus, overlap- right. So I suspect he longs to face a dawn when he
ping talk, sets with ceilings, or its carte blanche adds up the votes and discovers that the winner is
contract). I love its emotion, and the fact that after The Passion ofJoan ofArc, Pretty Woman or fuke Girl
all these years and viewings its message remains That news would be posted all over the world, and
unsettled. More than 1941 grasped, it is a film be a brief ‘hit’, and the value to Sight & Sound would
about meaning and purpose. The question be more substantial than the relief to Carl Dreyer
endures: is “Rosebud” the way to an answer for life, or Curtis Bernhardt.
or just the macguffin a dying man utters to set up Anyone who has lived would be in tears at the The game is not just vulgar, it’s stupid. Yet we all
his own labyrinth? end of his Ambersons. And we want to be moved, love games and - as the winner in another Sight &
have written a book about Orson Welles and
1 don’t we? Sound poll recently - 1 must say I enjoyed winning
I think1 have read all the others on him - from There’s the point. Like life, cinema relies on the as much as I know it was ridiculous. Was the
Peter Noble to Barbara Learning, from Rosenbaum principle of ‘show me something 1 haven’t seen cinema always prey to these games? Remember
to McBride to Conrad. And I hope to stick around before’. So the habit of Citizen Kane can become that the Oscars only arrived in 1 9 2 7-8, and they are
to see what Simon Callow will say at the end of his dismaying. Think of the marvel in opening that tottering now. Who really cares who wins an
fabulously Wellesian three-volume project. 1 have 201 2 issue of Sight & Sound to find that the winner Oscar? Yet movie writers and bloggers live on that
suggested before that the thing about books on is... Sunrise? Tokpo Story? The Godfather? Vertigo? ‘contest’ as much as the Academy depends on the
Welles is that they are all worthwhile - because There Will Be Blood? fuke Girl? (It’s a little 1942 TV revenue from awards night.
the man was so recklessly averse to being dull. picture by Curtis Bernhardt, with Ann Sheridan Once upon a time we went to the movies, auto-
Forget top tens for the moment, but acknowl- and Ronald Reagan. No, it’s not a masterpiece, but matically and habitually, without keeping score-
edge the possibility that Orson Welles was the I like it. And I doubt its chance of toppling Kane cards. We didn’t expect to rank the best summer
most interesting, complicated and tricky person is much less than that of the Coppola, the Ozu or days; we revelled in summer. It may have been in
who ever picked up a movie camera. Part of that the Hitchcock.) Brussels in 1958 that the games began. There was a
antipathy to dullness is in the way he did so many world’s fair of some kind (and who needs world’s
other things - he was radio and theatre, bull- Frenzies of democracy fairs now we have the Net?) and a panel of young
fighting and cheap wine, he was a magician and a By now, wary readers may be asking themselves, directors (it included Satyajit Ray and Robert
would-be politician, he was father and husband, “Is he wondering whether we should deliberately Aldrich) was asked to determine the best films ever
enormous but beautiful, he had the most sincere not vote for Citizen Kane?” Well no, not yet, anyway. made. Cahiers du cinema, then at its peak of subver-
voice as well as the most fraudulent. He was (If in the next 1000 words I suggest that, you may sive brilliance, responded with another list, and we
lovable and awful. And that bundle of contradic- write me off.) I’m not even sure that I won’t vote for were off. By 1962, Kane was top at Sight & Sound.
tions energises Charles Foster Kane as much as it it myself. Though if you study the results over the But don’t forget that in 1952 Welles’ film had not
does George Orson Welles. decades, seems that many voters flinch from
it appeared in the top-ten list? Why? Because it was
Think of him that way, then look at the work putting their top ten in an incriminating order - hard to see and had been since 1941.
again, and the thing most likely to stop you how do we begin to assess whether La Regie du jeu So list-making goes on apace now and news-
putting Kane at number one may be the thought of is ‘better’ than IIAtalante or Lola Montes? Instead, the papers are always seeking fresh angles for reader
The Magnificent Ambersons. The Christmas critics use alphabetical order or chronology, polls (best left-handed character?) where
Idream of is the discovery of Orson’s director’s cut because we know in our bones that orders of merit Cinema Paradiso is likely to win. The critics are cool
of his 1942 film in some loft in Rio de Janeiro, its and vulgar game. But vulgarity is
are just a foolish but patient with such frenzies of democracy. They
nitrate stable, its ending complete, with the waxing larger, and its artificial light now eclipses will pass, we tell ourselves, and ‘the public’ is a
Ambersons facing ruin - a film for our time? If we sunrise, the pale moon after the rain, light in concept that has to be endured, if not embraced. So
had that, I dare say, Ambersonswould go to number August or even Ueclisse. the games have become a climate now assisted by
one, if only because it would prove the more tragic I think I know the editor of Sight & Sound well thenew ease with which nearly any movie can be
and intimate of the first two films. It is still possible enough to guess he would demur if pushed to found and ‘enjoyed’ on that small screen we most
to find Kane too clever or too much of the hard-to- defend the idea of a valid hierarchy, a fixed of us live by. But the Sight & Sound poll does stand
map labyrinth. ordering, in the films made since 1895. Yet as the above the collective of lesser polls. It’s been around

THERE WILL BE CHANGE

Will ‘There Will Be Blood’,
top, be a new entry? Will
‘Tokyo Story’, below, better
its no. 5 position in the
2002 critics’ poll?

46 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
By now, waiy readers may be
asking themselves, ‘"Is he wondering
whether we should deliberately
not vote for Citizen Kane?”

longer. draws on an ‘informed’ electorate.

It

It once a decade. Do you see why

restricts itself to
the magazine is trapped into playing the game
it invented?
The worry lies in the underlying notion that if
the cinema is the new art and the modern sensa-

tion - not to mention the playground of the young

- then shouldn’t it renew itself every few years?
Doesn’t it deserve upstart miracles, audacious
ventures, and next year’s breakthrough in self-

destructive beauty, formal insurrection and razzle-

dazzle? So the polls have celebrated wonderful and
important movies made since 1941 - and over the
decades there has been some thought that Vertigo
or the first two parts of The Godfather might take
over the championship. Those are treasure houses,
and I speak as someone entranced by Vertigo in
1958 when it was a widely dismissed flop. But

honestly, as time passes, isn’t there something

goofy in Vertigo, not just far-fetched but crazy, that
restricts it. (Is it as good as Rear Window?) And

while I watch The Godfather every year, I do so to

reprise known pleasures - whereas with Kane
I find inner rooms and mysteries at every viewing.
may say so, is more intelligent or
Citizen Kane, if I
questioning than Vertigo or The Godfather. And it is
fixed on more important and eternal issues.
There are classics of modern film - take your
pick: Pierrot lefou, Persona, The Bitter Tears ofPetra von
Kant, The Discreet Charm ofthe Bourgeoisie, Cdineand
JulieGo Boating, The Shining, Raging Bull... Or from
more recent decades. Taste of Cherry, The Puppet-
master, The Lives of Others...? Moreover it’s always
possible that one of those (or one of the many
others you could add to the list)them-
will assert
selves 20 or so years after they were made and be
revealed not just as great films, but greater works
than their first audiences appreciated.
Then how do so many of us still feel the best
picture ever madecame 70 years ago, as a rebuke to
the factory system that existed then - and as the
work of an arrogant, comeuppance-ready 25-year-
old? Let’s go further: is Citizen Kane really more
than La Regie du jeu. The Shop Around the Comer, His
Girl Friday and The Lady Eve? (And I am confining
myself here to more or less the moment of Kane,
which was crowded out with pictures that look
glorious now but were deemed routine then.)
I don’t know what to do, but I want to suggest
that if Citizen Kane wins again in 201 2, it would be

COULD BE A CONTENDER
Marlon Brando in
‘The Godfather’, top, no. 2
in the 2002 directors’ poll,
while ‘Vertigo’, below, came
second with the critics

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 47
1
The greatest film of all time?

understandable yet depressing - and the downcast that had given us Sunrise, Bringing up Baby and
feelings would reflect on the medium and on us. The Shop Around the Comer.
The poll is not going to be abandoned, but it might I seem to recall in a final interview (and all his
be conducted with more flexibility. interviews had the weight of the last word) that
In American sports (you see, I love games too), Welles offered a murmured remark how Citizen
there is a tradition of teams retiring a player’s Kanehdid not yet been surpassed. I agreed with him
number from future use - so no New York Yankee then, and now. But the ‘best’ candidate is not
will ever again be number 5, because it was always the one to select. I have a hunch that while
Joe DiMaggio’s number. No Boston Celtic will Barack Obama was the inspiring choice in 2008, as
wear 3 3 because it was Larry Bird. And so on. You well as the promise of change, Hillary Clinton
may never have heard of, let alone seen, these might have been the shrewd pick and the working
masters, but you can grasp the idea of a pantheon, president more likely to be re-elected in 201 2. As I
a hall of fame, that lets later players strive for their say, it’s a guess. I do not propose or foresee any
excellence. I think that’s why there have been Writers wouldn’t stoop to a public contest on diminution in the study of Orson Welles, or the
efforts to mount campaigns for ‘modern classics’ the best novels or poems ever written - would obsession with him. He was right in thinking he
among movies, free from the daunting pressure of they? And the Kindle carries Laurence Sterne as was important; and if sometimes he seemed self-
the oldies. easily as Colm Toibin. In academe, it is taken for important, well, that was a pioneering trend too.
granted that excellent young minds might spend You may say that resolving not to vote for Kane
Cultural anxieties three yearson Thomas Middleton or Ford Madox in 2012 would be an entirely artificial gesture.
But the cinema’s relationship with history is Ford. And film has its lower-case academy now You’re right. But the poll and what it signifies are
uneasy. On the one hand, we can see so much now. where people take 12 years to write a book on also made of mist, whereas the reality of film
Video’s range is enormous. Turner Classic Movies Curtis Bernhardt - agreed, I don’t know that book, history is factual and mundane. Across the street
recently ran four hours of Boris Barnet and
all but I’m ready. (Turns out there is such a book, an from where I live, a cinema - the Clay (a Wellesian
Fyodor Otsep’s Miss Mend (1926) in a sparkling interview, edited by his son.) name) is closing in a few days’ time. It was once the
print. In San Francisco a few months ago, a packed What is altered is the sensationalism, and it’s jewel of arthouse cinemas in San Francisco. It was

house exulted in the new, enlarged version of natural enough that academe is disapproving of never a great screen, but how many people now
Metropolis with a live score by the Alloy Orchestra that drug when official, controlled medicines notice such requirements, or prefer them to their
that was like a rock concert. That strange, muddled might be prescribed. There are some who feel the home-cinema set-up? Home is grand and nice, but
film was a sensation again. Brussels poll of 1958 coincides with the first the movies were once a place for crowds, palaces
On the other hand, anyone who has taught film demise of cinema - not just the deaths of moguls and a sensation.
or tried to write about it in recent years knows the and stars (DeMille and Gary Cooper, Gable and The first time I saw Citizen Kane {in 1955 think,

dispiriting conviction in young people that the
medium began with Jaws and Star Wars, sensa-
tions in their day that may have marked the close
of a vital period in filmmaking. Quite recently
met a kid at a good American college who is doing
a film major. He was very knowledgeable about
certain aspects of film, but a moment came when
I happened to mention Gary Cooper. Blank look.
This young man had not seen a Cooper film. He
had not heard of him.
A part of what I fear is that while a few of us
continue to vote Citizen Kane in to its paramount
position, young people may have stopped seeing it.
There are plenty of reasons for that: it is in black
and white; it talks too much of the time, and with
such rapidity; it is difficult for a beginner to follow;
and kids don’t recognise any of the people in the
picture. Plus they may not have much sympathy
with that old institution, the newspaper.
Mack Sennett, for example), not just the at the Classic, Tooting), I hurried to the earliest
worshipful revisionism of the New Wave, redoing screening, because of what I’d heard and read
American genres by turning them inside out, but about the film (and because of Orson’s wicked
I the emergence from Holl3rwood of edgy films that charm in The Third Man). I anticipated a large
say, “Oh come on, you don’t take this flim-flam seri- crowd, but I was the only person there. That was a
ously anymore, do you?” Films like Touch ofEvil, heady way to see what I remember as a fresh print
Rio Bravo, Some Like It Hot, Anatomy of a Murder, - fresh eyes, anyway. And for a time - for decades,
Psycho - films that sauce the old gaze with post- even - 1 believed the picture was the lesson and
modern mockery. So Rio Bravo is not a western, but influence of that afternoon. But as I look back on it,
a movie about a group of people making a western. I’m not sure the real lesson wasn’t the emptiness of |
Not that Citizen Kane was ever in the main- the cinema and the Xanadu-like splendour it |
stream. It was a deliberately arty picture from a allowed me.
|
young man who intended to defy Hollywood, and So get ready for the vote next year. Survey the |
who could have spelled out why its factory was as field. Go back to some of the old films I’ve
|
bad for critical thinking and progress as the New mentioned. Take a look at Gary Cooper. Don’t miss |
York Inquirer. Welles was revolutionary and self- Citizen Kane, and pray for a restored Ambersons. §
destructive, and he would be adopted by the many Dismiss the poll as the self-promoting device of a |
cultural anxieties that perceived Hollywood as a nervous institute, if you will. But think of what it
|
rotten place and a delusion, as well as the factory conveys. And don’t forget Juke Girl 2

LEST WE FORGET
For many f Ilmgoers
today, cinema began with
‘Star Wars’, top; ‘Juke Girl’
below, with Ronald Reagan
and Ann Sheridan

48 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
 Venkman
KOBAYASHI Stantz
[XJKE&DUKE Spengler

r
=yi
^AlIT
1
MEMENTO
MORI
Based on the true story ofa
group ofmonks in Algeria,
'OfGods and Men' is one
ofseveral recentfilms
examine links between
French and Islamic culture.
But it's thefilm's evocation
ofthe monks' inner state
that really resonates,
says Jonathan Romney
LONG DAY’S JOURNEY
Brother Christophe
(Olivier Rabourdin,
facing page) wrestles
with his conscience as
the monks must decide
whether to flee or stay
and face their fate
50 Sight & Sound January 2011
I |
he title of Xavier Beauvois’s second
feature as director was Don't Forget
T
You're Going to Die {N'oublie pas que
tu vas mourir, 1 995). That could also
serve as a motto for his latest film
OfGods and Men (Des Hommes et des
a drama that was one of the
to
critical successes
dieux),
of Cannes this year, where it won
both the Grand Prix and the Ecumenical Award.
The film has recently become - improbably, you
might think, given its sombre theme and execu-
tion - a major box-office success in France. Like
Beauvois’s earlier film, Of Gods and Men is
concerned with mortality- with the inevitability
of death and the appropriate attitude with which
it should be met.
Although this is something we learn only in the
OfGods and Men is based on the 1996
closing titles,
kidnapping and killing of seven Cistercian monks
from the monastery of Tibhirine in Algeria, during
that country’s civil war. An Islamic extremist
group is believed to have abducted and killed the
French monks; their severed heads were found, but
not their bodies (the film doesn’t mention this,
perhaps so as not to close on a sensationalist note).
The story offers every prospect for a tense
hostage narrative, a fraught analysis of French-
Algerian relations, a from-the-headlines drama of
the Costa-Gavras school. However, Beauvois and
collaborator Etienne Comar - the film’s co-writer
and producer, who originally approached the
director with his script - choose a different
approach. They focus on events prior to the cata-
strophe, and on everyday life in the monastery,
creating what is primarily a low-key drama of inte-
riors and interiority. The film is set largely within
the monastery, with the monks appraising their
situation as their adopted country is beset by
Sight & Sound |
January 2011 51
1
 Of Gods and Men
^ violent conflict and extremist attacks on civilians,
Algerian and foreign alike. The monks - exiles
rather than missionaries, and in no way prosely-
tisers for Christianity - must choose between
staying or fleeing. They must ask themselves
whether it makes more sense to save their own
lives by departing, or whether it behoves them -
not just as holy men, but as men - to stand firm in
the face of almost certain death.
This might suggest a tendentious debate on
moral courage, specifically Christian and
specifically male - one of those films that empha-
sise the masculinity of the priest as conflicted hero
(see Melville’s Leon Morin, pretre, or Pialat’s Sous
soldi de Satan). In Beauvois’s film, however, male-
ness exists in the context of a desexualised male
communality, under the sign of fraternity. In inter-
views, Beauvois has said that the film’s essential
theme is “liberte', egalite',Jratemitd'-the secular Holy
Trinity of the French Republic.
Of the three, liberty is the most explicitly
invoked, notably by the monastery’s resident
medic Brother Luc (the veteran Michael Lonsdale),
who comments, “I’m not scared of terrorists, even
less the army. I’m not scared of death. I’m a free
man.” Luc sounds a note both historical and theo-
logical when he comments that in his long history
as a doctor,he has had dealings with all sorts,
including Nazis and even the Devil.
Implicit in the secular trinity of values is
ideal of solidarity. A central - and problematic -
issue is the matter of these Christians’ involve-
ment and identification with Algeria, and with the
values of Islam. The parallelism between the two
religions is discussed explicitly, but is
signalled very subtly early on in the film when,
after the monastery’s early-morning service,
hear the faint but distinct voice outside of the
muezzin’s call to prayer.
From the start, the film stresses the cordial
kinship between themonks and the Algerian
mountain community in which they have settled.
Early on, the monks are invited to a celebration in
the village, and wholeheartedly join in Islamic
prayers. The monastery’s abbot is a scholarly
theologian named Christian (Lambert Wilson), on
whose desk we see copies of the writings of St
Benedict and St Francis - and the Koran. Christian
feels a potent intellectual and spiritual bond with
Islam. Early in the film, he and Luc visit two
Algerian friends, village elders who express their
shock about the extremist violence in Algeria -
specifically the story of an 1 8-year-old girl stabbed
for not wearing hijab. Christian says his monks
will pray for the girl, adding, “Inshallah.” What’s
crucial is the monks’ solidarity with their host
culture, and adoption of its words of faith.
Soon afterwards, a group of armed mujahideen
arrive at the monastery demanding that Luc come
to tend a wounded man. Christian calmly refuses
- Luc is old, and their medicine belongs to the
village. He also makes a contentious move, which
52 Sight & Sound January 2011
I |
The monks are no more glorified than soidiers
wouid be in an equivaient film about the army.
This is the monastic equivaient of The Hurt Locker’
is to cite the Koran - he asks the armed men if they
know the verse that states, “Priests and monks...
they wax not proud.” It could be read as a sign of
presumption to quote the Koran at Muslims, but
Christian means to establish a shared language
and set of beliefs. He also explains that it is
Christmas, when his religion celebrates the birth
of its own ‘Prince of Peace’. The mujahideen leader
Ali Fayattia (Farid Larbi) offers Christian his hand,
and leaves in peace.
When Christian declines an offer of protection
from the Algerian army, his refusal occasions a
debate in the monastery, one brother objecting
le that,by making decisions on everyone’s behalf,
Christian has undermined the principle of
community. Christian also finds himself at odds
with the otherwise sympathetic local official who
makes no bones about blaming French colo-
nialism for the parlous state of his country. The
official hands over an order from Algeria’s
Ministry of the Interior, demanding that the
monks leave the country; again, Christian refuses.
Later, an army commander accuses Christian of
being indulgent with the rebels; he tells Christian
that his men have dragged the dead Fayattia along
the ground behind a truck (one of the violent inci-
dents referred to in the film, although the only one
shown is the murder of some Croatian workers).
The commander asks Christian to identify
the Fayattia’s body,which the monk does, joining his
hands in prayer - at which point the soldier makes
a gesture of dismissive contempt. The army has
become as much a menace as the guerrillas, and
indeed (although it’s never referred to in the film)
first there have been suspicions that the Algerian army
played a part, accidental or otherwise, in the
we
HAND OF FRIENDSHIP
Abbot Christian
(Lambert Wilson, left)
establishes dialogue
with local mujahideen
leader Ali Fayattia
(Farid Larbi, right)
monks’ eventual death. (I haven’t read it, but there
isa book-length account of the case. The Monks of
Tibhirine, by American journalist John W. Kiser.)
The decision facing the monks is a complex
and painful one. There are matters of social respon-
sibility to consider. For the monks, helping the
local community is an essential part of their
raison d'etre, they dispense medical care, social
assistance and, presumably, provide work and
income for the villagers with their cultivation of
honey. Their friends in the village certainly want
the monks to stay, telling them that they help
ensure order and stability.
There are more abstract reasons to consider too.
The pressing question becomes one of courage,
resistance, principle - all motives that might be
subsumed, for a religious believer, under the
heading of faith. The monks are initially divided
on the question; among them. Brother Christophe
(Olivier Rabourdin) is the most tormented. In his
dark night of the soul, he is seen alone, praying and
calling out, “Help me, help me,” while his fellows
listen in distress from their own cells. The film
stresses that, while the brothers form a collectivity,
each must make his decision utterly alone. No
‘we’re there for you buddy’ cosiness here - souls are
searched in appropriately austere manner.
Christophe’s troubles approach resolution in a
later scene with Christian, who tells him that, in
entering the order, ‘Tou’ve already given your life.”
Etienne Comar has cited The Seven Samurai- of all
films - as a model forOfGods and Men, but it makes
sense. Traditionally, the proper comportment for
the samurai is to act as if he were already dead, and
this is the challenge facing the spiritual samurai of
the Tibhirine monastery.
Communal soul
Essential to the film’s style, shape and tone are
several scenes that could be regarded either as
interludes in the action or as its essential moments,
in which the monks chant together in the Cister-
cian liturgical ritual (the actors themselves sing,
with severe beauty). These passages are solemn,
still, photographed by Caroline Champetier so as
to merge the men rather than framing them as
individuals; seen side on, from behind, they are a
collective being voicing a communal soul. These
scenes allow the viewer - and the characters -
periods of mental repose, during which to contem-
plate the action and its issues with calm detach-
ment. At the same time, we understand that the
singing is an integral part of the monks’ daily work
- part of the work of producing a community.
The meaning of that work becomes clear when
an army helicopter flies over the monastery - a
scene shot partly from the POV of a hypothetical
soldier peering over a gun. As the chopper flies
over, its martial noise threatening to drown out the
prayers, the monks for the first time look up, turn
and - their arms around each other - sing in an act
of peaceful symbolic resistance.
 Chanting apart, the film eschews music;
Beauvois refuses to impose rhetorical commentary
with a score. There is one moment, however, when
music is used very potently. Comar’s original script
had a scene near the end in which the monks sing
Jacques Brel while washing up. He and Beauvois
opted instead to have the monks gather at table -
one of two scenes in which the framing explicitly
evokes the placement of the disciples at Leonardo’s
Last Supper. Luc enters with wine and surprises his
fellows by switching on a cassette player, which
fills the room with music from Swan Lake.
Initially bemused, the monks exchange smiles
at this secular blessing. Each is seen in close-up,
silently musing on their situation - some with
gentle smiles, others with signs of dread, all seem-
ingly with resignation. Their thoughts are simply
suggested through the actors’ more or less muted
facial expressions, in a sublime testimony to the
eloquence of the wordless close-up. It is the dinner
scene that seals the viewer’s bond with the monks,
drawing the audience into these men’s intimate
community (one reason why the film needs to be
seen in a cinema). Beauvois boldly strikes a delicate
balance, risking kitsch with this depiction of
devout men relishing the almost corny rapture of
a classical greatest hit (but then, what do you think
monks listen to - Stockhausen?).
The film’s ability to evoke inner states is partly a
result of superb actors astutely cast, partly for their
looks: Lambert Wilson, with his bony, delicately
pensive physiognomy; the placid, gnome-like
features of the venerable Jacques Herlin, as
Amedee; the rougher, ordinary-man looks of
Rabourdiris Christophe; and Lonsdale’s face, that
ragged monument of French cinema, with its
historical traces of sensual worldliness. (Beauvois
chose to strip out Comar’s original back stories, but
Luc’s remains in part: listening to a young village
woman’s worries about love and marriage, he
confesses that he knew earthly love many times
before finding his vocation.)
Of Gods and Men comes as a departure in the
career of a gifted filmmaker who has previously
been nothing if not earthly. Beauvois’s last film as
director was the realist police drama Le Petit
lieutenant (2005), while Selon Mathieu (2000) -
despite its quasi-religious title - was about a man
seducing his boss’s wife as an act of revenge. His
only film previously released in Britain was his
second. Don't Forget You're Going to Die, a powerful if
narcissistic existential drama in which Beauvois
himself took the lead role of a man facing his
mortality in the shape of Aids and drugs. (Also a
frequent actor in other directors’ films, Beauvois
was most recently seen by UK audiences opposite
Isabelle Huppert in Benoit Jacquot’s Villa Amalia.)
What impresses about his new film is its clear-
minded detachment- the classicism and modesty
of its style. Avoiding overt rhetoric, it neither
imposes a clear moral or political meaning on
events, nor overstresses the dignity of its charac-
ters. We see the monks doing what they do not
because of some ineffable nobility (still less
divinity), but because praying, questioning them-
selvesand sacrificing themselves come with their
job. They areno more glorified than career soldiers
would be in an equivalent film about the army;
devotion is a part of professional commitment,
even though that commitment may lead to
extreme places. This is, you might say, the
monastic equivalent of The Hurt Locker.
Message of peace
OfGods and Men gives ample scope for theological
debate - a key passage, foreshadowing the monks’
diverse fates, quotesMatthew 24:40, “One shall be
taken and the other left.” (Two monks of Tibhirine
were indeed spared.) But the filmmakers have
particularly stressed a secular, loosely political
purpose: Comar has said that the film is more “a
message of peace and friendship between France
and Algeria than a discourse about colonialism”.
This is largely the spirit in which it has been
received, although a dissenting note was struck by
Liheratioris Didier Peron: he questioned the lack of
an explicitly political perspective, in the light of
which the monks’ position might more clearly
appear as “unctuous paternalism”. Certainly, the
film’s commercial success would suggest that audi-
ences find its themes as reassuring as they are chal-
lenging. Along with its message of tolerance and
courage, it offers similar contemplative pleasures
to another unexpected arthouse hit - Into Great
Silence (Die grosse Stille, 2005), Philip Groning’s
documentary about a Trappist monastery.
But from a more political perspective. Of Gods
and Men also belongs in a context of cinematic
LET THERE BE LIGHT
The veteran Brother
Luc (Michael Lonsdale)
tends to the sick in
the local mountain
community, who value
the monks’ presence
debate on the role of Islam and Arab culture in
contemporary France. In Cannes, the film
competed alongside Outside the Law (Hors la loi),
Rachid Bouchareb’s rousingly angry celebration of
the undercover guerrillas of the FLN, fighting for
Algerian independence in 1950S-60S France -
pitched as a conventionally thrilling action drama.
Last year, Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet (Un Prophete)
groundbreakingly depicted the rise of an Arab
gangland antihero (and controversially, showed
him exploiting Islamic identity for personal
advancement). Then there’s Hadewijch (screened at
the LFF in 2009, but yet to be released in the UK),
Bruno Dumont’s perverse and confrontational
drama about a disillusioned nun - a film that can
be seen as assertively anti-religious in its equation
of Catholic and Islamic extremisms. In a wider
post-colonial perspective. Of Gods and Men also
resembles Claire Denis’s more impressionistic and
ambivalent White Material, another story of
outsiders who refuse to leave a country in turmoil
- although Isabelle Huppert’s protagonist is more
overtly a colonial hangover, determined to squeeze
the last drop of comfort (or coffee) from a country
that no longer wants her around.
In White Material French and Africans alike find
their crises culminating in a mass collapse into
violence, even insanity - perhaps, for Denis, the
only conceivable outcome of the relationship
between colonialist and colonised. In OfGods and
Men, something else is at stake. However out of
place they seem in modem Algeria, the monks
aspire to replace and correct colonialism with a
benign post-colonialism, in which the outsider
remains as guest, helper, kin. One can see how this
position might serve to cover a more duplicitous
exploitation - Peron’s “unctuous paternalism”. Yet
Christian’s closing voiceover leaves no doubt
about the sincerity of his relationship to Algeria.
As he anticipates meeting his maker, he mounts a
defence of the Islam that he sees as misunderstood
in Europe, and distorted in the Algerian conflict:
‘This country and Islam for me... are abody and
soul... God willing, I will merge my gaze in the
Father’s and contemplate with Him His children of
Islam, as He sees them.”
may well see Of Gods and
Religious audiences
Men as a statement about modern sainthood - and
certainly the film’s stylistic reserve will contribute
to that, evoking a sense of austere grace in
everyday life. But secular viewers will find a
humanist serenity in a film that, equally avoiding
the traps of piety and cynicism, speaks with simple
candour for understanding - a political message
that is no less urgent for the calm formal reserve
with which it is conveyed by Beauvois and Comar,
and by their characters. OfGods and Men achieves
a grace that, in secular terms, is best translated
simply as ‘sanity’.
'OfGods and Men' is released on 3 December, and
is reviewed on page 77
Sight & Sound |
January 2011 53
1
new wavefilms on DVD
Kicks is a compelling tale about two teenage girls infatuated with celebrity and fame
whose friendship is fuelled by the figure of their fantasy.

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The teenagers A stylish indie
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ARTEFACT FILMS
ARTEFACT hUMb MWMikTs
Dear Zachary: Roman Polanski:
A Letter To A Son About His Father Wanted and Desired
A Film by Kurt Kuenne A Film by Marina Zenovich
“A true-crime story so gripping, devastat- “This is a superb picture, sharp, open-
ing, and ultimately unforgettable that it minded, wised-up and cinematically
easily trumps any thriller Hollywood has to accomplished. 1 wonder if any man
offer this year.” could’ve handled the Polanski enigma
Martin Tsai, The Village Voice with the same ironic intelligence Zenov-
ich has.”
‘An agile, dizzyingly thorough tear-wringer
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
that’s equal parts memorial, crime drama
and legal-reform tract, Dear Zachary handily “A subtly intelligent and sharply argued
trumps Capturing the Friedmans as the most documentary.”
searingly personal doc of the past half decade.” THE TRUTH COULDN'T FIT IN THE HEADLINES Manohla Dargis, New York Times
Mark Holcomb, Time Out-New York

to
O n 5 November 2001, Andrew Bagby was murdered by
Jane Turner. After being released on parole, Turner
Canada, where she gives birth to her and Bagby’s
Shirley
flees

child, Zachary.
the US R eopening a case that has inspired
confusion for over three decades,
curiosity, controversy,

Roman Polanski:
Desired is an extensive exploration of the events before and after the
Wanted and
and

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Zachary as a way for him to get to know the father he’d never meet. a 1
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the film changes focus to Andrew’s parents, and their desperate efforts by myth and misconception. A thrilling examination of a case that be-
to win custody of the boy from the woman they knew had murdered came the prototype for innumerable Hollywood courtroom scandals
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What happened next, no one ever could have foreseen... defines celebrity culture in recent times.

available now on DVD www.artefactfilms.tv

 Reviews
56 FILM OF THE MONTH 58 FILMS 92 DVDS 100 BOOKS

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 55
1
 Film of the month
Alien nation
Blending road-movie and sci-fi, thefantastic and the everyday, ‘Monsters’ is an astonishingly assuredfeature
debutfor its young British writer, director and special-effects designer GarethEdwards, says Nick Roddick
Monsters
Gareth Edwards, 2010
Monsters does for the CGI
generation what George A.
Romero’s Night of the Living Dead
did for 1960s horror: takes a series
of increasingly tired conventions
and reinvents them. And it does so
in much the same way that Romero
did: by creating a world that is,
base, completely realistic, then
matter-of-factly introducing an
element that changes everything -
there, the zombies; here, aliens.
An astonishing achievement
for first-time British feature director
Gareth Edwards, most of whose
previous experience has been in
special effects. Monsters
under £500,000 with a limited crew
shot for
and two largely unknown actors.
a sci-fi thriller based on the
It’s
premise that most of Mexico has
become an Infected Zone populated
by alien creatures. Two young
Americans - photographer Andrew
Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) and rich
traveller Sam Wynden (Whitney
Able) - get stranded south of the
Zone at the start of “the season” (the
aliens’ most active period) and are
forced to cross it to return to the
US. Monsters is as much a love story
as it is a sci-fi thriller - and as much
a road movie as it is either of those.
One of the film’s greatest
pleasures is the casual way in
which Edwards (credited as
production designer as well as
writer, director, cinematographer
and effects designer) integrates the
fantastic into the everyday: the road
signs that casually mark off the
kilometres to the Infected Zone;
the children’s cartoon featuring a
comic alien glimpsed on TV during
the first overnight stop; the casual
references to “the season”, as
though it should be obvious
to everyone what this means.
The crew evidently followed
the same path as the protagonists,
feeding off and building on what
they found, occasionally dressing
the real with elements of the
unreal, as when they pass a cart
hauUng away the engine of a
crashed US jet for scrap, or sail
pastsome eerily abandoned hotel
complexes on their way through
56 Sight
1
& Sound |
January 2011
at
When Andrew comes across the
money shot he has been seeking
all along, instead of taking a picture,
he gently covers the child^ body
the Zone. And the one lavishly
developed physical effect - the
pulsating, flashing alien spores
attached to trees - is both
appropriately creepy and a
convincing imagination of what
an alien life-form might look like.
The film certainly doesn’t look
low-budget, and one suspects that,
even if he’d had the resources of
a Zack Snyder or a Michael Bay,
Edwards would still have operated
on a less-is-more principle. His film
ismore in the vein of Robert Wise’s
1963 The Haunting than Cloverfield-
which could be a problem
commercially. Edwards makes few
concessions to the core horror
audience. The visceral, night-vision
opening apart, there are no sudden
shocks - the initial alien attacks
come not in heart-jolting cuts but
via glimpses. Indeed, the only other
shock the film delivers is not scary
at all, but occurs in a soundtrack
cut from a quiet riverside scene to
the roar of the riverboat’s engine.
Despite its obvious potential, this
isno film for gore hounds: the
eviscerated body of the lead
guerrilla is not shown, merely
glimpsed at the edge of the frame,
causing Andrew to throw up.
Monsters is a film that’s very
aware that other films precede
it. The first sound is of a marine
humming Wagner’s ‘Ride of the
Valkyries’, Apocalypse Now-sty\e, as
they barrel along the Pan-American
Highway, and Andrew and Sam’s
river journey clearly references
the same movie. But Monsters is
equally determined to do things
its own way. This is especially true
of Edwards’s attitude to genre. The
film certainly uses basic horror-film
tropes - Andrew and Sam are
thrown together in a situation of
perilnot once but twice, the second
time inescapably. There are also a
couple of those ‘don’t go in there’
moments without which horror
movies could not operate. But
Andrew and Sam are far from the
stereotype model of boy protector/
girl in peril. Sam’s role as the only
Spanish-speaker gives her equal
footing on the journey. And the
traditional insensitivity of the
disaster-zone photographer, set
up in some of Andrew’s early
scenes, is very much undercut
when he finally comes across the
money shot he has been seeking
all along: a child killed by an
alien. He removes the coat that
has served as wrapping for his
camera in his backpack, but
instead of taking a picture, he
gently covers the child’s body.
Andrew and Sam may start
out as stereotypes - battle- weary
pap, spoilt little rich girl - but
they quickly develop into fully
rounded characters who engage
our attention as much as the
eponymous creatures. Indeed the
film is more or less a two-hander
(the amiable sleazeball selling ferry
tickets is the only other person to
come close to character status) and
the chemistry between McNairy
and Able, a couple in real life, is one
of the things that drives the film.
Where Edwards does veer back
into Romero territory, however, is
which begins
in the film’s final act,
as a lyrical journey through some
breathtaking Mexican jungle
scenery, includes a Mayan pyramid
and the film’s most impressive
CGI creation - the wall around
the United States - before ending
in a deserted, desolate Texas, an
Armageddon-style landscape as
scary and hopeless as anything
in The Road The area’s one living
inhabitant, a mad homeless woman
pushing a trolley of possessions,
gets fourth billing in the credits
and delivers the film’s most
disturbing sound, a barking yelp
of aggression and despair.
SEASONAL DISORDER
When traveller Sam Wynden (Whitney
Able, above) is injured in the alien
Infected Zone, photojoumalist Andrew
Kaulder (Scoot McNairy, far has
left)
to escort her to safety through Mexico
But this final sequence also
elevates Monsters from a highly
competent creature feature to
something more intriguing. An
isolated gas station is beautifully
shot by Edwards, its lights glowing
against a flat and empty landscape.
It’s also the setting for the film’s all-
important coda, in which fear gives
way to awe as Andrew and Sam
watch an encounter between two
of the creatures bonding in a world
that, to them, is far more alien than
the Zone the humans have just
been through. Just before it, both
humans have effectively recognised
that their attachment to one
another is now deeper than the
bonds they believed they shared
with the other people in their lives:
Andrew with his five-year-old son;
Sam with her fiance. In her final
conversation with the latter,
Sam signs off with a perfunctory
“I love you”, but the look that
subsequently passes between her
and Andrew is far more eloquent
than her words.
The ending of Monsters is both
desolate - the world, as in Night of
the Living Dead (1968), is never
going to be the same again - and
uplifting, not just in the coming-
together of hero and heroine, but in
the way their relationship with the
‘threat’ is fundamentally changed
by seeing the mating-dance-style
encounter between the two aliens.
The film’s actual final scene -
the arrival of two Humvees full
of casually aggressive soldiers,
walkie-talkies crackling, who
separate them and hustle them
away to ‘safety’ - seems like
an intrusion.
What Edwards achieves here
is in the grand tradition of fantasy
literature and cinema: a sense that
the humans who have been
through the mill of the narrative
now share more with the creatures
they have been battling than they
do with the people they knew
before the narrative began. Mina
Harker opening herself to Count
Dracula is the romantic archetype;
Ben (Duane Jones) in Romero’s
film - the only surviving human
in the farmhouse, gunned down by
trigger-happy National Guardsmen
who can’t see the difference
between him and the zombies - its
bleak modem equivalent. In much
the same vein. Monsters is a radical
parable for an alienated age.
For credits and synopsis, see page 76
stealing from reality
Gareth Edwards on inspiration and effects in ‘Monsters’
Initially thought of doing ‘Monsters’
I
as a doc, following an alien-invasion
story across the globe for a year.
But then got worried that this
I
might be the only chance got to I
do a film, and didn’t want it to stink
I
of documentary, so turned it into
I
a drama. The analogy really was the
notion of hurricane season - the
creatures come into a certain area
at a certain time of year, but most
people would be sensible and avoid
it. That’s why the leading man’s a
photojournalist, because he’d be GARETH EDWARDS
drawn towards the danger, and in
order to make him initially give a that seem to relate to America’s
shit about the girl, she became the immigration policy towards Mexico
boss's daughter. The story sort of or the ‘war on terror’. You make a
wrote itself from there. monster movie more real by stealing
If ‘Cloverfield’ is like September 11, from reality.
my film is Afghanistan six years later The software can track camera
- and people have Just got bored movements, so that if you add
with it. The stuff I’m really proud of anything to the material you’ve
in the film is where they get to the shot on location it’ll appear solid
motel, stick on the TV, and it’s like in the background. Then you use
CNN showing some night-vision Photoshop or the like to paint in the
alien attack. But Sam just crashes imagery, whether it’s signs on the
out, like it’s Just wallpaper. wall or military vehicles. Technically
When you pick something that’s the film isn’t really groundbreaking.
so fantastical as a concept you It’s just a matter of treating
have to ground it in reality as much everything as if it’s authentic so the
as possible, and you look for the vibe of the shot gives it that feeling
equivalent in the real world, which that it’s really happening. Gareth
is why there are elements in the film Edwards talked to Trevor Johnston
Sight & Sound |
January 2011 1
57
 Films
Zhang Guoqiang

Aftershock FangDaqiang
Wang Ziwen
Xiao He
People's Republic of China/ Yang Lixin
LaoNiu
Hong Kong 2010 LuZhong
Director: Feng Xiaogang grandmother
Yong Mei
With Xu Fan, Zhang Jingchu, aunt
Li Chen, Zhang Zifeng Uli Liu

Certificate 15 135m 29s Si Chuan mother

Chen Daoming
Wang Deqing
Aftershock opens with snazzy CGI shots Chen Jin
DongGuilan
from the point-of-view of a dragonfly
Zhang Baowen
(it’s part of a vast swarm fleeing Wang Zhiguo's wife
Tangshan, in premonition of the Ma Qiuzi
Director Zhao
devastating earthquake which will hit
Lu Jing
the city that night) and shortly after woman teacher
delivers a fairly convincing snapshot David F. Morris
of the earthquake itself with an effects Alexander
Jing Yuan
sequence showing the collapse of most
Zhang Xin
buildings in one neighbourhood and UBu
focusing on the decimation of one Bai Longfei

family. As day dawns, the newly Rescue operation: ‘Aftershock’ Chen Xinwen
Qian Jialin
widowed Li Yuanni (alternately over- Qian Tongtong
and under-played by the director’s wife, no whisper of criticism of the corrupt Production Managers Jiang Yanming Conductor: JinHuan
Yang Dong Visual Effects by Wang Liguang Chang Fangyuan
Xu Fan) faces the most agonising of officials who allowed shoddy, unsafe LuSen Technicolor (Beijing) Music Supervisor
choices: her twin children are trapped building in the Sichuan earthquake Zhu Ruilin Visual Technolo^ Co., Zhang Hongguang Dolby Digital
in the rubble, and freeing one of them zone, and the People’s Liberation Army Production Ltd. Soundtrack In Colour
Co-ordinator Blackginger "Ending Song" -Faye
will, she’s told, inevitably cause the couldn’t wish for a more glowing [Z35:l]
Li Wanjun MPC Wong Subtitles
other’s death. Threatened with, the testimonial. Feng is smart enough to Financial Supervisors Loki Visual Effects Inc Sour>d Designer
loss of both, she opts to save her son - know that understatement is nowadays ZhaoZhiguo Special Effects Kim Sukwon Distributor
thereby traumatising her daughter, more potent than full-on melodramatic Xue Xiaoqing Supervisor Sound Supervisor Metrodome Distribution
who will go on to be rescued after all Location Managers Chung Do Ahn Wu Jiang
excess. He leaves several lachrymose Ltd
Zhu Ziliang Korea Special Effects Re-recording Mixers
but will not achieve reconciliation events offscreen and doesn’t overload Li Jun Producer Wang Gang 12,194 ft +29 frames
with the mother who consigned her the climaxes with emotive music. But Xiao Li Foreign Crew: Wang Dong
to death until 32 years later. The film, the film remains excruciatingly old- LI Deli Son Janghyun Stunt Co-ordinators Chinese theatrical title
WeiTian Special Effects MaoGuoqing Tangshan Dadizhen
in other words, is not the CGI-driven fashioned. The ‘heightened realism’ of Action Unit Directors Foreign Crew: Su Ping
blockbuster spectacle intimated by the performances and the explicatory Park Ju Chun Demolition Liu Xueshen

the early scenes but instead a typical clunkiness of almost every line of Action Unit: Hanil Guo Huizhong
Liu Mingzhe Executive Art Director ShiZhanjie
Chinese tear-jerking family melodrama, dialogue would be right at home in
Foreign Crew - Korea: Zhao Bin Hu Lifeng
less seismic than choked-up. a communist film of the 1960s. •

PiaoZhe Artistic Director Li Meilin

Aftershock is framed by earthquakes: Tony Rayns Assistant Directors Nie Chenxi Wang Miiigling
the Tangshan earthquake in 1976 Zhang Changzheng Visual Design Liu Jing
YingTong Shi Haiying WangQingmei
initiates the tragedy in the Fang family CREDITS In association with
RenYongqiang Set Decorating Foreign Crew:
Tangshan Broadcast
(the father dies, the mother dies Directed by Liu Wei Manager Yoon Jinyul
and Television Media
emotionally, the daughter is left for Feng Xiaogang LiuZuotao LiuJinyong Beak Donghyun
Co., Ltd. China Film
Produced by Script Supervisors Artistic Consultant Park Kabjin
dead and thus consigned to 32 years of Group Rim Production
GuoV^nhong Sun Hao Zeng Qinghuai Consultant
Corporation. Huayi
traumatised embitterment) and it takes Han Sanping WangJiali Property Masters Zhao Yong
Brothers Media
the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 to bring WangZhongjun Yin Haiyan Xu Xiaolong
Corporation.
Camera Operators Baotai
mother, son and daughter back together Producers Shanghai Film Group
Team A
Li

Wardrobe Supervisor
CAST
Ren Zhonglun
at the father’s grave. In between the two, Corporation. Zhejiang
Xu Fan
Peter Lam Kin Ngok Chen Zhuxiang Liu Xiaoli
Media Group & Co.Ltd.
the film offers a panorama of (a) the vast WangTongyuan Sun Ligang Hair/Make-up Artist Li Yuanni
Media Asia Rims Ltd., Zhang Jingchu
social changes in China in the decades Yeung
Albert TeamB Wang Jun
Emperor Classic Films
Screenplay Wang Min Special Make-up Fang Deng, 'Wang Deng’
since Mao’s death, and (b) the emotional Company Limited UChen
Su Xiaowei He Yang Effects
disasters that occur when parents and Executive Producers
Adapted from the novel KeYuming Supervisor Fang Da
Chen Kuofu Zhang Zifeng
children selfishly neglect the Confucian by Zhang Ling Chief Gaffer ShinJaeHo
WangZhonglei Fang Deng (childhood)
Cinematography KangXiaotian Foreign Crew:
bonds that bind them. The wdlfully Guoying Chen
LuYue Visual Effects Mage Zhang Jiajun
unfilial behaviour of the children Han Xiaoli
Editor Supervisor: Music Performed by Fang Da (childhood)
Jiar^Tao
comes in for a bit of stick, but most of Xiao Yang PhilJones Asian Philharmonic LuYi
Hu Xiaofeng YangZhi
the blame for everything that blights Art Direction
Zhao Haicheng
Producer: Orchestra
HuoTirygxiao
these lives is laid on fate: the acts of a VcioJianguo
Original Music Co-executive
capricious god make humans suffer. Wang Liguang SYNOPSIS 1976: When an earthquake strikes Tangshan, China, during the night
Producers
That’s why the film’s documentary Xiong Guoxiang of 27/28 July, driver Fang Daqiang is killed and his tvdn children Fang Deng and
coda (it shows the memorial wall ©Tangshan Broadcast Zhang Dajun Fang Da are trapped in rubble. Fang’s widow Li Yuanni learns that rescuing one
and Television Media Lu Huijun
listing the 240,000 victims of the
Co.. Ltd. Huayi Brothers child will cause the death of the other; in extremis, she opts to save her son Da,
WangTianyun
Tangshan earthquake) is underpinned Media Corporation, who loses his left arm. But Deng (aware that she was left to die) later revives and
Cheng Weidong
by Faye Wang’s tremulous rendition of Media Asia Films (BVI) Shirley Lau is adopted by the childless couple Wang Deqing and Dong Guilan, both People’s
a song derived from a Buddhist sutra - Ltd
Albert Lee
Liberation Army officers. Initially taciturn, she grows up as Wang Deng.
Production Line Producer
although the coda also reminds us that Companies 1986: Da quits school and leaves for Hangzhou, where he drives a pedicab.
Hu Xiaofeng
the film was initially commissioned by Tangshan Broadcast Deng leaves her adoptive parents to study medicine, also in Hangzhou. After two
Associate Producers
Tangshan city council. and Television Media
Co., Ltd. China Film
GaoRuihua years she returns home to see Dong Guilan, now dying in hospital. Shortly before
To echo John Ford on Cecil B. Shi Dongming
Group Corporation, LiQingshan
graduating, Deng gets pregnant. She refuses an abortion, leaves her boyfriend
DeMille: there’s no one in the room Huayi Brothers Media (student Yang Zhi) and disappears to have the baby.
Yu Dongjie
who knows more about what the Corporation present in
Song Lian 1995: Now a company boss. Da brings his fiancee Xiao He to meet his mother,
association \with
Chinese public wants than Feng Bernard Yang
who stubbornly refuses his offer of a better home. Deng supports herself and her
Shanghai Film Group Peng Mingyu
Xiaogang, and he certainly knows how Corporation. Zhejiang daughter Diandian by giving English lessons. One Spring Festival, Deng and
FuWenxia
to give it to them. Like DeMille, Feng Media Group & Co, Ltd., Ni Zhengwei Diandian visit the long-neglected Wang Deqing; Deng tells him that she will marry
and somewhat
started out as a sparky Media Asia Rims Ltd.. Lorraine Ho a lawyer and live abroad.
Emperor Classic Films Roddy Wong
were
iconoclastic talent (his early hits 2008: In Vancouver, Deng hears of the Sichuan earthquake and rushes back to
Company Limited Unit Production
cynical comedies, heavy with attitude) Associate Production China to join the relief effort. Da also joins the rescue crews, and Deng finds him
Managers
but evolved into a peddler of bombast, Company: China Film YinKun when she overhears his account of their childhood trauma. Together, they return
challenging no one and enthusiastically Co-Production LiXiaolu
Corporation
to Tangshan to see Li Yuanni and pay respects at their father’s grave.
endorsing the status quo. Here, there’s

58 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
 The question is: if in the end the

The Be All film seems hopelessly -

unentertainingly - naive,
if not entirely
how much
SYNOPSIS A seaside caravan park near Liverpool, the present. Fifteen-year-old
Ziggy is on holiday with best friend Robbie. They are given vodka by sympathetic
barmaid Sophie, a student working during the summer break whom Robbie
and End All is merely a reflection of the
this
naivety of Robbie and his best mate
admires. The following morning Robbie collapses. He is taken to hospital and
placed in a children’s ward run by nurse Tina. Robbie is diagnosed with a fatal
United Kingdom 2009 Ziggy, and of the filmmakers’ desire
heart disease.
to stay within the boundaries of
Director: Bruce Webb Robbie explains his sole wish to Ziggy: not to die a virgin. He implores Ziggy
their youngsters’ vision?
With Eugene Byrne, Josh Bolt, to help him find a sex partner. Ziggy appeals to Kirsty, one of the girls at school,
That the sometimes
film’s vision is
Connor McIntyre, Liza Tarbuck who initially agrees but finds herself unable to go through with it when she
persuasive and funny has much to do
Certificate 15 98m 49s with the freshness of the two young
arrives at Robbie’s bedside. Ziggy, asked to destroy pornography on Robbie’s

non-professional leads, Eugene Byrne

home computer, finds emails from Sophie.
Ziggy takes Robbie on a trolley to a massage parlour, just as it’s raided by
The interesting things about debut and Josh Bolt. Both are allowed
police; the friends narrowly escape. Next Ziggy visits the red-light district,
producer-director Bruce Webb’s considerable physical freedom by the
imperfect Liverpool-set comedy are director, and the best scenes are where
where his money is stolen by a pimp; he befriends prostitute Krystal and sees
Robbie’s father touring the area. Ziggy argues with his mother J^te about his
its seeming immersion in the values of they are encouraged to josh, play off
its teenage protagonists, its particular and react to each other; less successful own absent dad. He spends a night exploring New Brighton in an attempt to
find his father.
regionalism and its own version of class- are the moments where high dramatics
conscious populism. There’s not much take them beyond their range. More
Ziggy’s final effort for Robbie is to employ Krystal and persuade Tina to provide
sophistication in the script (by Steve problematic are certain key scenes, a room them. Krystal turns up at the hospital as arranged, but is preceded by
for
Sophie, who has sex with Robbie. Robbie dies; Ziggy finds his father walking on
Lewis and Tony Owen, who also scattered through the film, where
Liverpool Bay.
wrote the equally schematised 2008 explosive male anger seems to be
Mackenzie Crook comedy Three and applauded - such as when Robbie’s
Out), which sets up its premise well father (the formidable Connor CREDITS Associate Producers Hair/Make-up Bethan Thomas
Designer
enough - how can underage, McIntyre) raises his voice to Ziggy Director
i
Stuart Hatwell hospital clerk
I Alex Lewis Amy Moorcroft Kerry Williams
hospitalised Robbie lose his virginity to stop his questioning. Most of Bruce Webb Production Hair/Make-up Artist Vanessa
before he dies? - and doggedly, if the film’s women meanwhile are Producer Co-ordinator Nichola Keating Leah Whitaker
Bruce Webb Merabti Sound Recordist
episodically, proceeds to its destination, seen as either ideally compliant I Leila prostitute 1
Written
Location Manager NigelAlbermaniche Lenny Wood
where he ‘becomes a man’ through earth mothers or ‘liberated’ sexual Steve Lewis
I

I Alex Harrison Re-recording Mixer vicar

an act of charity/love. (The film, in modernists able to donate their Tony Owen PosLproducer KathFbllard Dave Jackson
candidly explores sex for the bodies in acts of uncomplicated, Dir^or of Matthew Locke Supervising Sound Becky Stringer
as far as it I

Photography Assistant Directors Editor Greg Milton

terminally sick or disabled, joins pretty boy-satisfying generosity. Zillah Bowes 1st: Bailey Marks Justine Angus Tony Smith
rarefied company, including Jean-Pierre Although this isn’t a juvenile Editor
I

2nd: Peter Candler punk band musicians

I

Sinapi’s Uneasy Riders and Lars von world dominated by the ‘absent father*, JoeWilby Script Supervisor ‘Dead Cowboys’
Production Designer Sara Doughty
CAST Sung
Trier’s Breaking the Waves, though its Ziggy is a character highly influenced I
Phil
Tine Jespersen Eugene Byrne
Casting Dir^or chippy guy
intentions are quite obviously not as by the absence of his own dad. The boys’ Composer/ Ziggy
I
Michelle Billington Beverley Eve
correctional as the first of these, nor obsessive sexual questis conducted Conductor/ Gaffer Josh Bolt staff nurse 2
j
Orchestrations Robbie Wallace Ged Whitmore
as provocative as the second.) without paternal advice; the only I
Ewan Cassidy
Richand Lannoy Connor McIntyre
Soundtrack immigration!
In tone, if not in event, Webb’s other significant adult male figures in
"Tell Me”. "Kelly's Eye" - Mr Wallace Garry Whitmore
I

feature steers clear of tragicomedy, the film are using sex in similarly ©Be All Films Ltd. The Zen Hussies: Liza Tarixjck immigration 2
I

taking its place rather in the tradition compensatory ways themselves, both Production Tina Steve McGowan
"Faultlines” "The Good
Companies - Karine Potwart; Neve McIntosh immigrations
of populist working-class northern with prostitutes. There is an inherent 'ifears”
Be All Films presents a "Still Shaking" - The Kate Kirsty Hale
comedy - from Letter to Brezhnev (1985) sadness attached to this, which - like Whatever Pictures Catherine Rice
Ashtray Hearts; Helen Webster
through The Full Monty (1997) to Robbie’s impending death - The Be All production i "Sunday Night” - The Mrs Wallace Michelle King
Calendar Girls {200^). But where those and End A// allows but doesn’t highlight; Made with the support Zincs Bryony Seth Kerstin Atkin
I
of Screen South Art Director/ Sophie brothel girls
movies applied a degree of self-criticism it’s just there as part of the difficult Executive Producers
I

Additional Production Leanne Best Bryn Williams

or self-awareness in their comic the boys face, from which the
‘reality’ Michael Woodward Designer Krystal Billy Allen
examination of defiant reactions to comedy springs, and which gives the Paul Morrissey
I
Jo Cook Emily Bonner Bob Barr
Co-producer Costume Designer Karen Blackwell Paul Dave
unemployment, poverty, lowered film a genuine sense, for all its faults,
John Maxwell Lydia Hardiman Mick Colligan brothel customers
expectations or second-class status, of depth, optimism and quiet triumph. Line Producer
I

pimp
Webb’s film is largely uninflected. Wally Hammond Michelle Billington Suzanne Collins Dolty Digital
WPC In Colour
Lisa Davies [1.85:1]
prostitute 2
Julie Duffy Distributor
prostitutes Verve Pictures
Kelly Fdrshaw
little Debbie 8393 ft +6 frames
Thomas Gordon
Harry Gordon
Ziggy’s stepbrothers
Natasha Hendrick
Debbie Richards
Kate Henry
Ziggy’s stepmother
Taylor Johnson
Lorna
Molly Melia
Catherine Holmes
Shanelle Monaghan
Cheryl Hanwell
Jason Mulheam
Zi ggy ’s dad
Vicky Nightingale
staff nurse
Eryl Loyd Parry
Gerry Cavanagh
Carla Prior
prostitute 4
Darren Rapier
Dr Palmer
Jack Rigby
older boy
Zelina Robero
Tara Morgan
Roman Ryan
Ffyan
James Spofforth
PC
Laura Swift
Kirsty
Virgin mobile: Eugene Byrne, Josh Bolt

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 59
1
 Films

Broken Sun Burke & Hare

Australia 2007 United Kingdom 2010
Director: Brad Haynes Director: John Landis
With Jai Koutrae, Shingo Usami, With Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis,
Kentaro Hara, Kuni Hashimoto Isla Fisher, Tom Wilkinson
Certificate 15 91m 38s Certificate 15 91m 25s

A study of what we’d now recognise The real-life

story of William Burke
as post-traumatic stress disorder, Brad and William Hare, Ulster-born grave-
Haynes’ feature debut revolves around robbers turned murderers in 1820s
two central characters, Australian Edinburgh, and eminent surgeon
and Japanese, a generation apart but Dr Robert Knox for whom they
each with vivid memories of active acquired the bodies, has often attracted
participation in a major conflict. In filmmakers. This latest version sets
the case of the middle-aged Jack, it’s out its stall right from the start. “This
World War I, as an ANZAC sergeant Entrenched memories: Jai Koutrae, Shingo Usami is a true story,” announces an opening
shipped over to Pozieres, France, title, “except for the parts that are
whereas Masaru’s experience is in Jack has two needless deaths on his particularly new, it’s a sensitive, not.” And within the first ten minutes
1944 (the year of the film’s ‘present’) conscience, both plaguing him in often moving film that augurs well we’ve had a hanging, a leg amputation
in the south-west Pacific. The roots of the form not just of flashbacks but for Haynes’s future, especially if he without anaesthetic (causing the
their traumas are unearthed gradually, convincing-looking ghosts who sit ever secures a budget to match his patient’s death) and a corpse oozing
and the film pays at least as much in the comer of his bedroom and evident ambition. Michael Brooke maggots. Jocular gore is evidently
attention to cultural factors affecting intermpt his sleep. the order of the day - which sets
their response. Given that the tiny budget mled CREDITS Robin Royce Queree John Landis’s film apart from previous
New mailman
Jack has retired to a farm in out direct competition with the Directed by
screen versions of the events (including
Galvin Scott Davis
South Wales, where he lives a solitary likes of Gallipoli (1981), Broken Sun Brad Haynes Chaplin
1985’s The Doctor and the Devils, directed
existence briefly interrupted by the is impressively mounted, with Produced by James Bishop by Freddie Francis from an outline
Sasha Huckstepp
postman (who greets him with a production designer Ian Sparke
Brad Haynes
crippled soldier script by Dylan Thomas), all of
cheery “G’day, Mr Grumpy!”) and a conjuring claustrophobic WWI Screenplay
Ian
major
Sparke
which played up the horror angle
gruff Aboriginal neighbour. However trenches and a Pacific island jungle, Dacre Timbs Martin Thomas and wasted no sympathy on the
Story
for Masaru, a prisoner of war in a nearby and cinematographer Anthony Daniel notorious pair. Understandably enough,
Brad Haynes Katie Ditchburn
camp, identity is firmly bound up with Jennings varying the locations’ colour Dacre Timbs given that most of their 16 victims
mother
that of platoon, family and country; his scheme from gun-metal monochrome Director of
Keira Sheehy were vulnerable women and that Hare
superior officer Kamimura reinforces to lush greenery - though the dominant Photography girl shopped Burke to save his own neck.
Anthony Jennings
this how Japanese
with pep talks about colour at Jack’s farm is sun-scorched
Editor
Angus Stead Here, though, we’re introduced to
young German prisoner
POWs are national pariahs, and how brown. If Haynes and screenwriter HayleyLake Steven Dodd
Burke and Hare (Simon Pegg and Andy
the road to redemption lies in killing Dacre Timbs overdo the nature symbols Military/History
Aboriginal man Serkis) as loveable chancers, the Del
Designer
as many soldiers as possible - or, (former warrior Jack feeding a bottle TakiAbe Boy Trotters of Edinburgh, trying out
Ian Sparke young Japanese
failing that, suicide. Attempts at this of milk to a lamb, Kamimura ordering Composer/Music a snake-oil scam on gullible citizens.
prisoner
‘honourable’ alternative have already his men to be inspired by the carp’s Arranged/ Produced Paul Karton
They fall into grave-robbing and
been made - one of the film’s briefer heroic journey upstream), they make by lone Australian soldier murder by accident and stick with
MatteoZingales Matthew Davidson
flashbacks shows Masaru and his potent use of photographs and objects them out of need or, in Burke’s case,
patrol soldier 1. NSW
closest comrade Shingo placing their as repositories of memory. ©JACKAFilms for love of the young would-be actress
Mark Grentell
heads on railway tracks, only to be There are occasional rough edges - Production Company patrol soldier 2, NSW Ginny, whose patron he becomes.
JACKAFilms presents
stymied by the train stopping in time. Jai Koutrae is fine as the younger Jack Matthew Olsen The true villains, in classic populist
Associate Producers
So when Jack finds a dazed Masaru on but never quite convinces as a world- patrol soldiers, NSW style, are the respectable hypocrites
Corey Lazzarotto Brett Murphy
his farm and takes him captive, neither weary middle-aged man (if he was a Jai Koutrae
camp guard like Dr Knox (Tom Wilkinson) and
man conforms to stereotype. Although sergeant in 1916, he’d be at least 50 Assistant Director
Tom Last his rival Dr Monro (Tim Curry) who,
1st: Coney Lazzanotto Ben Lazzarotto
Jack immediately rants about Japanese by 1944), partly thanks to a clearly along with the rest of their class,
Visual Effects Artist
Mark Lazzarotto
atrocities, it’s clear that the sensitive shaven head unconvincingly Darrin Hanley
George Lightfoot
close ranks when disclosure threatens.
Masaru (who whiles away the time substituting for baldness. A more Special Effects
Nathan Scholz Burke, meanwhile, dies a noble death,
Brett Murphy
discerning anthropomorphic shapes experienced director would also have Mark Taylor sacrificing himself Sydney Carton-style
Art Directors
Steven Thomas
in clouds) has played no part in them. guarded against the understandable Wendy Morrison for his beloved and his friends.
Brad Walsh
Indeed, despite Kamimura ordering longueurs that arise when two Ian Sparke Sam White Famous-name cameos - Christopher
him to “paint the jungle red”, Masaru’s psychologically damaged people Make-up Australian soldiers Lee, Bill Bailey, Jenny Agutter, John
Old Jack: McPherson
body count numbers just one by the attempt to communicate in a
Amy Morhson
Trent Woodvine, Stephen Merchant, Paul
Jason Piltz
film’s conclusion - and that someone meaningful way. But if it ultimately Joanne Bentley Whitehouse as an indestructible drunk
Adam Preston
who actively wants to die. By contrast. has little to say about war that’s Mother:
Ewen Scholz - stud the film, adding to the sense
Rachel Montgomery
German soldiers of a cheery romp. Ronnie Corbett as
Title Design Masahiro
SYNOPSIS Central New South Wales, Australia, 1944. Jack lives a solitary Darrin Hanley
a pompous militia captain picks up
Osamu Irie
existence on a farm, tormented by his failing health and recurring memories Solo Cello Ippei Teranishi
the best of the laughs, deploying his
James K. Lee Takuya Hisatsune native Edinburgh accent (‘murder’
of the trenches at Pozieres, France, in 1916, some of which manifest themselves Sound Designer/ Ken Matsuura becomes trisyllabic) to good effect.
in the form of the ghost of fellow soldier Bill. Sound Supervisor Takashi Nagata
Masaru, a Japanese prisoner of war being held nearby, escapes with commanding Sasha Zastavnikovic Elsewhere Landis tends to plug his
Japanese POWs
Sound Recordist jokes. In the Greyfriars graveyard
officer Kamimura and fellow soldier Shingo. He stumbles on Jack’s farm and is
Nick Pursehouse
taken captive. Although Jack intends to hand him over to the authorities as soon
In Colour scene an initial shot of Greyfriars
[1.78:1]
as possible, Masaru speaks some English, and the two form an uneasily respectful
Bobby, faithful on his master’s tomb,
CAST isfunny - but then we cut back to the
relationship, especially as it becomes clear that they harbour similarly traumatic Distributor
JaiKoutrae
memories of their respective wars. On an island in the south-west Pacific earlier Metrodome Distribution dog three or four times, squashing the
Jack
that year, Masaru witnessed Shingo shooting an Allied soldier dead, while Jack Shingo Usami
Ltd humour flat. Likewise Piers Ashworth
recalls having to abandon the wounded Bill during a mustard-gas attack. Masaru and Nick Moorcroft’s script relies
8,247 ft +1 frame
Kentaro Hara rather too often on the anachronistic
Shingo tracks Masaru down, but is threatened by Jack, who spares his life after Shingo
his rifle turns out to be empty. Jack remembers stabbing a German prisoner to ‘new word’ gag: “I think Pll call them...
Kuni Hashimoto
‘photographs’,” says Dr Knox, and
death after failing to get a satisfactory answer out of him regarding Bill’s fate. Kamimura
Sam O'Dell Hare’s wife Lucky, inventing a
Believing that his status as a prisoner has brought shame, Shingo commits
Bill
harakiri and Masaru finishes him off. The next day, the authorities arrive, having respectable profession, hits with
Mark Redpath
already picked up Kamimura. They find Shingo’s corpse, and Jack shows them German soldier delight on the term ‘funeral parlour’.
to his bam, but Masam is nowhere to be seen. Rudi Baker While it’s good to see John Landis,
Alone with his memories. Jack sees the ghost of the German prisoner.
Alan, interpreter after his wilderness years, back on
something near form, Burke & Hare

60 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
 Tom Wilkinson Michael Winner
SYNOPSIS Edinburgh, 1828. Irishmen William Burke and William Hare are
eking out a living selling cheese mould to credulous punters as wonder-cure
Doctor Robert Knox
Jessica Hynes
gentleman passenger
Tom Urie Catfish
Lucky heart attack man
‘Donegal moss’. Rumbled, they flee for their lives. Hare’s drunken Avife Lucky
Bill Bailey la Smith USA 2010
tells them their lodger old Donald has died. Drowning his sorrows, Hare learns hangman barmaid
that corpses are fetching a good price; two rival surgeons. Dr Robert Knox and Tim Curry Janet Whiteside Director: ArielSchulman,
Dr Alex Monro, are desperate for bodies to dissect. Burke and Hare transport old Dr Alex Monro old woman Henry Joost
Michael Smiley Jenny Agutter
Donald’s body in a barrel to Dr Knox, who pays them £5 and offers the same for Certificate 12A 87m 22s
Patterson Lucy
any more they bring him. An attempt at grave-robbing is thwarted by the arrival Paul Davis Robert Stone
of the Edinburgh militia under Captain McLintoch, but the pair hasten another patient Miss Clarissa Windsor
Christian Brassington Max Landis Pick a friend - a Facebook friend or
lodger, old Joseph, to his end.
Charles handsome coachman one in the same room as you - and ask
Celebrating in a tavern, they encounter Ginny Hawkins, a young Gabriel le Downey Chris Obi them about ‘the Facebook film’. They
dancer/prostitute with ambitions as an actress. Burke is smitten with her, and Mad Maggie John Martin
will without doubt assume you mean
Stuart McQuarrie Patricia Gibson-Howell
hears her plans to stage an all-female Macbeth Burke and Hare begin targeting
magistrate Mrs John Martin David Fincher’s Oscar-tipped The Social
random victims; their first two attempts are abortive, but a fat man dies of fright Mike Goodenough Michael Billington Network, which tells the story of the
at their approach. They step up their activities, attracting the attention of crime aggrieved customer medical student
social media site from its origins in
boss McTavish, who demands they pay him half their earnings. For the imminent Robert Fyfe Stephen Merchant
dorm room in
old Donald Hollyrood footman
a Harvard 2003. It’s a
visit of the king to Edinburgh, a competition is announced for the most beneficial
Robert Willox Jacob Edwards gripping tale, but one that will tell
advance in medical science. Knox and Monro intensify their rival efforts; with gravedi^r’s bouncer Hollyrood courtier you little about the nature of Facebook
the help of pioneer French photographer Nicephore, Knox plans a ‘map of the David Schofield John Woodvine
itself - both Fincher and screenwriter
Fergus Lord Provost
human anatomy’, requiring two bodies a week. Aaron Sorkin boast of never having
David Hayman Billy Riddoch
Burke offers to back Ginny’s production. McTavish tells Burke and Hare Danny McTavish rabble rouser used the site, while its cast line up to
he plans to take them into partnership; his associates aren’t pleased, and Ronnie Corbett Esme Thompson make similar disavowals. An underdog
McTavish’s corpse is soon delivered to Knox. The opening night of Ginny’s Captain Tam McLintoch N icephore’s girlfriend
Ciaron Kelly Costa-Gavras builds an empire based on a bold vision
Macbeth is a triumph. McLintoch’s suspicions lead him to Knox’s laboratory.
Private Fox Michele Ray Gavras but must count the cost of friendships
About to present his work to the king, Knox is forestalled by McLintoch, who Reece Shearsmrth Romain Gavras lost along the way - another dotcom
seizes the photographs as evidence. Burke and Hare are arrested, along with Sergeant Mackenzie Emmanuel Hamon
start-up could easily be plugged into
Ginny and Lucky. Lord Harrington, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, Joyce Henderson Theo Hamon
MrsMcFie French family this near-mythic template, or equally
and the city’s Lord Provost persuade McLintoch that a trial would damage Pollyanna McIntosh Dodger newspaper stable.
a
Edinburgh’s reputation, and mollify him by promoting him to colonel. To Mary Greyfriars Bobby
To understand - or at least get a
save the others, Burke confesses. He and Ginny spend the night together Georgia King Seamus the D<^
Emma himself
glimpse of - the strangely unstable
before he’s hanged. Hare and Lucky open a funeral parlour.
Shelley Longworth reality in which sites such as Facebook
Hannah [uncredited] invite you to wander, it’s Catfish you
Amanda Claire Christopher Lee
good way short of An American
falls a Gordon Harmer Guards; ‘Tm Gonna Be need, not 77?e Social Network Directed
Nicola old Joseph
Werewolf in London (1981) in terms of Hair/Make-up (500 Miles)” -The by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost,
Allan Corduner
Designer Proclaimers; "Burke’s
wit and invention. And though this is Christine Blundell Swing” by Joby Talbot
Nicephore Dolby Digital the documentary focuses on Ariel’s
Steve Speirs In Colour
an Ealing production, invoking the Make-up/Hair Artists Production Sound brother Nev, a New York photographer
McMartin’s doorman [235:1]
memory (as Landis does) of Kind Hearts Lesa Warrener Mixer
George Potts
who, as the film begins, is opening a
Chloe Meddings John Midgley
and Coronets and The Lady killers is just Doctor Lister Distributor package. It contains paintings - copies
Titles Design Re-recording Mixers
asking for trouble. Philip Kemp Matt Curtis Gareth Bull
Duncan Duff Entertainment Film of Nev’s published photographs -
attendant Distributors Ltd
Additional Music Adam Mendez
Hugh Bonneville
whose naive charm is heightened by
Composed by Supervising Sound
the fact that the Abby Pierce,
CREDITS Unit Production
Guy Dagul Editor
Lord Harrington 8326 ft +15 frames artist,
Manager Ray Harryhausen is just eight years old. Nev ‘friends’
Directed by Ben Foster Harry Barnes
Tim Wellspring Sir Alan Munroe
John Landis Production
Trumpet Solo Stunt Co-ordinator Abby, and then her extended family,
Dr JohnGaynor
Produced by Co-ordinator Mike Lovatt Gary Connery on Facebook. More paintings arrive,
Michael Wilson
Bamaby Thompson Hannah Collett Music Orchestrated/
Robert Paynter as well as songs recorded for him by
Written by Conducted by
Piers Ashworth
Production
Ben Foster
CAST distinguished doctors Abby’s attractive older sister Megan.
Accountant Simon Famaby
Nick Moorcroft Soundtrack Simon Pegg What began as a document by distance
Jon Duncan William Wordsworth
Director of "Messiah - Oratorio William Burke
Location Manager Tom Meeten of a young art- world outsider (in
Photography (Halleluiah)” by Geonge Andy Serkis
Camilla Stephenson
John Mathieson Frederic Handel: William Hare Samuel Coleridge contrast to the Schulmans’ hip
Post-production Paul Whitehouse
Editor
Supervisor "Amazing Grace” Isla Fisher Manhattanite success) becomes one
Ginny Hawkins gentleman drunk
Mark Everson Linda Deacy
Royal Scots Dragoon of online romance. But then Nev
Production Designer
Assistant Directors uncovers a fib and, having decided
Simon Elliott 1st: Alexander Oakley
Music t^/Music to tug at this thread by visiting Abby,
2nd: Mark Hopkins
Arranged and Script Supervisor Megan and their mother Angela in
Produced Libbie Barr Michigan, finds the fabric of his new
Joby Talbot Casting
social network unravelling.
Dan Hubbard
©Burke and Hare Films Camera Operator Catfishs strength lies in its editing.
Limited and Visually integratesnew online
A: Martin Hume it
Entertainment Film
Distributors Limited
Steadicam Operators media in a way that many films
Paul Ediwards
Production have tried and failed to do: Google
Peter Wignall
Companies Gaffer Earth tracks its protagonists’ travels,
Entertainment Film
Alan Martin introductions are made using Facebook
Distributors and Ealing
Key Grip photo and Google Street View
tags,
Studios present a
David Appleby
Fragile film in
Visual Effects
provides external establishing shots.
association with Aegis
BlueBolt Ltd. But the way its narrative is created is
Film Fund, Prescience
Special Effects equally impressive, as Catfish takes an
and Quickf ire Films Supervisor
In association with Altus unexpected turn and follows the new
Neal Champion
Productions Special Effects line to a conclusion of some pathos.
Made with the support Special Effects GB Ltd In a documentary about appearance
of the tottery through
Supervising Art
the UK Film Council and reality, it is impossible not to
Director
Development Fund question the verite of some scenes:
Bill Crutcher
E)«cutive Producers Nev and the directors merge into a
Art Director
Nigel Green
Nick Dent all three appearing on
single team, with
James Spring Set Decorator
Tim Smith camera and behind it. The temptation
Annie Gilhooly
Paul Brett
Production Buyer to restage certain revelations must
Peter Nichols
Marshall Aver have been high, especially given Nev’s
James Atherton Property Master
Jan Pace telegenic comfort as a subject. But such
Peter Hallam
Co-producer Construction Manager
questions need not unsettle the film’s
Alexandra Ferguson central point. It opens with an extreme
Steve Bohan
Associate Producer Costume Designer close-up of pixels on screen, a trembling
Nichola Martin
Deborah Nadoolman
field of red-green-blue - the implication
Costume Supervisor
The beast with five fingers: Andy Serkis being, do not miss the wood for the

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 61 1
 Films
The internet metaphor falls apart
Chatroom fast- why do all the characters appear
more or less the same online as they
United Kingdom 2010 do when they finally meet in real life?
Director: Hideo Nakata In the year of Inception, we constantly
expect the ostensibly ‘real’ world in
With Aaron Johnson, Imogen Roots,
the film to be deconstructed into
Matthew Beard, Hannah Murray
another net fantasy, but that option
Certificate 15 97m 22s isunexplored. There are few obvious
signs of Nakata’s involvement, other
The Social Network showed how online than a functional atonal score by Ringu’s
communities can express dysfunctional, composer Kawai Ken ji, a brief image
destructive and self-destructive of a Japanese girl killing herself on
personalities. Chatroom takes on the webcam, and an increasing emphasis
same theme but in a manner that could on ‘forbidden’ images. (There was a
kindly be called eccentric - though much reported wave of internet suicide
few viewers will be so kind. Although clubs in Japan a few years ago, as
it aims to be a disturbing thriller. brilliantly dramatised in a macabre
Chatroom misses out what could have episode of Kon Satoshi’s TV anime
been its big twist: if only it could have Paranoia Agent.)
left its director’s name a secret until Nakata’s Vertigo-style T999 thriller
the end titles! For this stagey, low- Chaos W2LS built mostly from
budget British melodrama, largely implausible twists, suggesting a
revolving around London’s Camden wish to wrongfoot audiences who knew
Lock and a very low-rent vision of him for Ringu. Perhaps that’s the best
cyberspace, was made by Hideo Nakata, explanation as to why he turned to
the world-famous director of the Chatroom. Lovers of transnational curios
Japanese horror film Ringu (1997). may find its inept earnestness strangely
Chatroom is an old-school Awful enjoyable, but Chatroom is far duller
Social Warning, in which several than many real-life online stories.
strangers meet in an online chatroom The British one to beat is still that of
to be manipulated in increasingly a 14-year-old schoolboy who, in the
dastardly ways by the room’s seductive words of the Belfast Telegraph, “posed as
sociopath founder (Aaron Johnson). a female secret service spy in an internet
One of the film’s central devices is chatroom to try to persuade a friend
to visualise the internet not as some to murder him”. Andrew Osmond
Tron-hke neon ether but rather as a
peeling, putrescent green corridor CREDITS Notting Hill Films a Ruby
Films production
with websites as virtual ‘rooms’ in Directed by A Hideo Nakata film
which strangers chat, party, have Hideo Nakata Executive Producers
tacky sex or mob the weak to suicide. Produced ty Sharon Harel
Laura Hastings-Smith Katherine Butler
Unsurprisingly, Chatroom is based on Alison Owen EveSchoukroun
a stage play (by Hunger's Enda Walsh). Raul Trijbits
Maya Amsellem
It’s possible to imagine the crude Written by
Mark Foligno
Enda Walsh
metaphor working on screen in the Tania Reichert-Facilides
based on his play Line Producer
hands of, for example, Michel Gondry, Director of
Andrew Litvin
You’ve been framed: Nev Schulman but Nakata botches the film One is . Photography Associate Producers
quickly reduced to wondering which Benoit Delhomme Faye Ward

^ trees, or the screen for the dots. But Associate Producer

Colin Wilhm
Sophia Hobbins
Sarah Ann Iverson
note rings the wrongest - perhaps the
Film Editor
Masahiro Hirakubo
Hannah Farrell
Production
alongside this scepticism there’s a cringingly facile caricature of J.K. Production Designer
Additional Joelle Brookes Co-ordinator
sympathetic understanding of what Rowling as the villain’s ruffled upper- Jon Henson Burton
Cinematography Josh Brookes Livia
Composer
might motivate online deception, NickBentgen Alex Pierce crust mother (Megan Dodds), or the Production
Kenji Kawai Accountant
a recognition of the real poignancy Animation poor little posh supermodel (Imogen
Andrew Zuchero In Colour Vincent OToole
of the idealisations and projections
Paintings by [L78:l]
Foots) who falls for his bad-lad charms. ©Ruby Films Location Manager
that Facebook, and the internet as a The dialogue, much of it about (Chatroom) Ltd-

whole, can enable. ^ Sam Davies

Angela Wesselman-
Pieroe
Re-recording Mixer/
Distributor
Momentum Pictures
generation gaps as seen from the
Channel Four Television
Corporation. UK Film
Helene Lenszner
Post-production
Supervisor
perspective of spoiled whiney Council and Notting Hill
Supervising Sound Alistair Hopkins
CREDITS Editor
Editor 7863 ft -0 frames youngsters, is painfully tinny and Films Limited Assistant Directors
Zac Stuart-Pontier Production
Directed by Coll Anderson earnestly overamped. Nakata’s drama 1st;Marco Ciglia
Companies 2nd; Matthew Hanson
Ariel Schulman ©Supermarch^. Hit the of false perceptions never feels real, Film 4, UK Film Council Script Supervisor
Henry Joost Ground Running. LLC WITH though the attractive young cast try and West End Films Kriss Landin
Produced by Production present in association
Andrew Jarecki
Megan Facck) gamely for callow enthusiasm and Casting Director
Companies Seth Nylander with Mol inane and
Nina Gold
Marc Smerling are largely excused by their material.
Supermarche presents Kyle Pierce
Henry Joost in association with Hit Ben Pierce
Ariel Schulman the Ground Running a Ryan Iverson SYNOPSIS The setting is present-day London, and also a series of stylised
Cinematography filmby Ariel Schulman Angela Wesselman-
Henry Joost & Henry Joost Pierce
corridors and rooms which serve as metaphors for the internet. A youth, William,
Ariel Schulman
Co-producer Yaniv ‘Nev’ Schulman setsup a new chatroom called ‘Chelsea Teens!’ He is joined by Mo, Eva, Emily and
N^niv Schulman
Zac Stuart-Pontier
Jim, who quickly open up about their personal issues.
Emily is encouraged to shake up her complacent parents, and begins vandalising
SYNOPSIS A documentary charting the relationship between New York their property at night. Seventeen-year-old Mo confides in William about his guilty
photographer Nev Schulman and Abby Pierce, an eight-year-old girl from William encourages Mo to tell his friend,
attraction to his friend’s pre-teen sister.
Michigan who sends him paintings of his photographs through the mail. leading to a punch-up. Jim talks to the group about how his father abandoned him
Nev encourages Abby’s efforts and befriends her family online, in the process as a child. William encourages him to come off his medication, and privately
becoming romantically interested in Abby’s sister Megan. entices him towards suicide-themed websites. William stays quiet about his own
Nev is suspicious when he realises that a song Megan claims to have recorded background as the resentful son of a bestselling children’s author. He starts an
for him is in fact a copy of a performance on YouTube. He travels to Michigan to online relationship with Eva, who’s an unhappy photo-model. William vandalises
confront Abby’s mother Angela, and discovers that the Pierce family circle as he the website of Eva’s rival.

knows it is an invention. The paintings are Angela’s, and she has been posing as Eva realises that William is trying to make Jim kill himself. William leaves a
Megan. Angela explains that this alternative reality has been her escape from her gun for Jim to shoot himself at London Zoo, where his father abandoned him.
life as a housevdfe and carer for two severely disabled stepchildren. When that plan fails, William chases Jim to Camden Lock, with Eva, Emily and
Nev returns to New York. Closing captions reveal that Nev and Angela are still Mo in pursuit. The police arrive and comer William next to a railway line; he
‘friends’ on Facebook. deliberately falls under an oncoming train.

62 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
Steadicam Operator "Energy and Sound Re-recording Gerald Home
Derek Walker Movement"; "Make It Mixer Tony Layton
Gaffer Take It" - Amanda Richard Davey Karin Ichihashi
Julian White Blank; "Blue Skies" - Supervising Sourrd Japanese girl
Key Grip Noah and the Whale; Editor Abigail Leonard
Robert Barlow "Stay the Same" Paul Davies gymnastics coach
Animation Directed/ autoKratz; "Cruel Stunt Co-ordinator James Lester
Designedly Intentions" - Simian James O'Dee young 'Dorfli' boy
Daniel Stirrup Mobile Disco; "Prelude Rebecca McLintock
Animation Producer NoJI F (The Well- Keisha
in
CAST
TomAizIewood Tempered Clavier - 2nd Jodie Miller
Animation Art Director Book BWV 880)" by Aaron Johnson Tony Layton as girl
Robin Crowley Johann Sebastian Bach William Claudio Moniz
Animation Director -The Swingle Singers; Imogen Roots Brazilian bully 4
of Photography "Karen" -Chew Lips; Eva Alex Peck
Matthew James Day "VCR"- The >a; Matthew Beard William as girl
Animation Modeller "Turning the Mind" - Jim Fabk) F^drosa
Collette Pidgeon Maps; "Gravity's Hannah Murray Brazilian bully 3
Special Effects Rainbow (Soulwax Emily MaryRoscoe
Supervisor Remix)" - The Klaxons; Daniel Kaluuya psychiatrist
Neal Champion "Ninth Symphony Mo Scarlett Sabet
Special Effects (GB) Ltd Second Movement" by Megan Dodds Betsy
Supervising Art Ludwig van Beethoven Grace Simon Silva
Director - Nicolaus Esterhdzy Michelle Fairley Brazilian bully 1
Patrick Rolfe Sinfonia; "Bubble" - Rosie Michael Smart
Art Director Riva Starr; "Starry B/ed Nicholas Gleaves Brazilian bully 2
Gareth Cousins (Jakwob Remix)" - Ellie Paul Emily Spires
Set Decorator Goulding; "The Flower Jacob Anderson Laura
Robert Wischhusen- Duet" from "Lakme" by Si Oliver Swainston
|

Hayes L^ Delibes - Adriana Tuppence Middleton Brazilian boy

Production Buyer Kohutkova. Denisa Candy Stop making sense: Richard E. Grant, Laura Fraser
Prue Howard Slepkovska. the Slovak Ophelia Lovibond Dolby Digital
Prop Master Radio Symphony Chartatte Colour reality. All of which is moderately
Craig Cheeseman
Construction Manager
Dan Crandon
|1
Orchestra;
"Somersault" - Sky
Larkin; "My Name Is
Richard
Ripley
Madden

Matthew Ashforde
DeLuxe
[L85:l] Cuckoo I

I
fascinating but not really borne out
in writer-director Richard Bracewell’s
Costume Designer Jim's father formal approach, which switches
1
Tallulah" by Paul Distributor Director: Richard Bracewell I

Day
Julian Williams - Jodie Foster; Dorothy Atkinson Revolver Entertainment
With Richard Grant, Laura Fraser,
E. I perspectives and attempts to offer
Wardrobe Supervisor "Left My Heart in Tokyo Emily's mother

Jane Marcantonio (Radio Edit)" - Mini Alex Blake 8,762 ft +5 frames Adam Fenton, Tamsin Greig i
an omniscient neutrality - possibly
Hair/Make-up Viva;"Seven Day Smile" man on mobile phone I
in the hope that intercutting will
Designer - Doves Jane Weaver;
,
Noa Bodner Publicity title whip up some suspense. Sadly,
i

Marese Langan "Better Late Than woman at book lauixh Ch@troom

Amanda Boxer Laura Fraser is an actress who always growing incredulity proves the
Make-up Artist Never" - Tiffany Page;
I

Kate Warwick-Oliver "8000” - Proxy Mrs Sinclair manages to look as if her characters I
order of the day.
Music Supervisor Music Consultants Lorraine Cheshire are thinking through their actions, and Occasionally, there’s just a hint
MattBiffa SebChew Yorkshire housewife
1
her air of intensifying befuddlement is of the unsettling nuance the film
Soundtrack Sasha Nixon Matthew Fenton I

"Disconnect'' - Sound Designer young Jim understandable in this poorly plotted I

Plastikman; "Animal
(Mark Ronson Remix)"
- Miike Snow; "Wash in
the Rain" -The Bees;
isobviously after (a non-sequitur
Paul Davies Elarica Gallacher micro-budget British offering. She plays I
encounter with an embittered old
Ushi
Production Sound a vulnerable young woman who’s I
school chum is an awkward one-off),
Mixer Ross Gumey-Randall
large Camden man desperately upset by the voices she and Andrew Hewitt’s doomy string-
David Lascelles
I

hears in her flat while her clubbing 1

boyfriend is away at nights, driven
indeed to the verge of a breakdown.
Presumably anyone in the audience
with even the dimmest memory of
Roman Polanski’s Repulsion {ig6's) is
meant to feel sympathetic, but at a
basic story level there’s a credibility
issue here. Fraser’s nervy Polly lives
in a mansion block, so surely she’s
used to hearing the neighbours? We
get repeated shots of the stairwell
entrance, but never see anyone else
living there - which is typical of a
film that affects a would-be spooky
laden score surely deserves a more
I
effective context than this. Ultimately,
I
however, Bracewell just can’t get away
1 with feigning moody enigma when
I his narrative relies on such unlikely
1 occurrences as the sister and boyfriend
I
of the protagonist carrying on an affair
I
in a conveniently empty and unlocked
i
upstairs flat... even after edgy Polly has
I
been complaining of hearing voices in
j
the building! Even worse is to come
and I
with the climactic reveal involving
I
a technologically absurd bit of
I undercover audio recording; but
I it’s the final emotional switchback,

and atmospherically hermetic quality I as Fraser lurches from wide-eyed

but doesn’t convince in its detail. I
nervous wreck to spontaneous
Richard E. Grant (cast against type, I
killer, that makes no sense at all.

and rather stiff) is the sinisterly over- I Much as one would like to support
protective cardiology professor who I
the British independent sector, this
delivers a lengthy monologue on I simply doesn’t cut the mustard.
how perception is a matter of our I Trevor Johnston
brain processing sensory inputs and i Credits for this film were unavailable
therefore open when the
to question at the time of going to press and will
mind starts to create its own alternate be published in the February issue

SYNOPSIS UK, present day. Cardiology researcher Polly is anxious about a

forthcoming job interview, and worried by voices she hears in the flat she shares
with boyfriend Chapman - a club musician often away at nights. Polly’s sister
Jimi offers support, though she is in fact having an affair with Chapman. Julius,
a professor at Polly’s hospital department, is taking a seemingly personal interest
by keeping Polly’s flat under surveillance. Polly eventually traces the sounds to
the empty flat upstairs, but just misses Jimi and Chapman in flagrante. Julius visits
Polly’s flat at Jimi’s behest, and offers some sleeping pills. Chapman’s relationship
with Jimi grows increasingly strained; when he returns to the flat one night, Polly
attacks him, convinced he’s been tormenting her. Jimi joins in to keep the affair a
secret. Polly is offered the new job. She visits Julius to tell him that she’s taking a
break with Jimi, whereupon Julius reveals his secret recordings (from a transmitter
inside the pill bottle) of Jimi and Chapman’s liaison and the sisters attacking
Chapman. It becomes clear that Chapman was killed in the attack. Polly walks
away, slaps the waiting Jimi, then offers her the hand of forgiveness.
Problem boys: Matthew Beard, Aaron Johnson

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 63
1
 Films

Due Date
USA 2010
Director: Todd Phillips
With Robert Downey Jr, Zach
Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan
Certificate 15 95m 6s

In a film stuffed with arch little in-jokes,

the juiciest comes when frustrated

control freak Peter (Robert Downey Jr)
challenges Hollywood wannabe Ethan
(Zach Galifianakis) to ad-lib something
easy, like a team pep-talk scene from
a baseball movie. Ethan - whose
aspirations are based on his love of
TV sitcoms - is nonplussed. “That
would never even be a movie,” he scoffs.
“Are you kidding? They make that
movie every two years!” Peter replies.
Of course, while it’s probably more
like a five-year cycle for the good old
sporting-underdog paradigm, this film’s
storyline - the odd-couple road-trip Flirting with disaster: Robert Downey Jr, Zach Galifianakis
comedy - really does come round with
clockwork predictability. What makes stoned, bedraggled loser with a mug- Chief Lighting Make-up Department Horses: "Amazing Jakob Ulrich
Technicians Heads Grace" - Rod Stewart. Patrick
Todd Phillips’s contribution to the genre shot stare. It’s the kind of knowing
Jarred Waldron Janeen Schreyer Sam Mitchell; "Check Ya Naiia Ulrich
so successful, and so hilarious, is his complicity between filmmakers and 2nd Unit: 2nd Unit: Self 2010" -Ice Cube Alex
determination to take each grindingly popcom-munchers that makes Due James Tomaro Blair Leonard featuring Chuck D. Todd Phillips

predictable plot cliche by the horns, Date entirely heartless but deliciously Key Grips Key Make-up Artist featuring samples from Barry
Sean Patrick Crowell Keith Sayer “Grab This Thing" - The Bobby Tisdale
flip it over on its back and make it tart. This is a big, brash, overblown
2nd Unit: Hair Department Mar-Keys; "Theme from Carl
scream for mercy. whoop-and-holler of a film, instantly Paul Perkins Heads Two and a Half Men" by Sharon Morris
Take the central personality forgettable, but thoroughly enjoyable Visual Effects Jennifer Bell Grant Geissman. Lee airport X-ray
Supervisor 2nd Unit: Aronsohn. Chuck Lorre Nathalie Fay
mismatch that underlies all such while it lasts. Lisa Mullen
Marc Kobe Gunnar Swanson Sound Design Emily Wagner
narratives: here, it’s not just a clash Visual Effects by Key Hair Stylist Cameron Frankley flight attendants
between a prissy guy and a messy guy, CREDITS Mika Salto DigiScope Merribelle A. Anderson Sound Mixer Steven M. Gagnon
it’s a titanic battle between a violently
Atlanta: Method Main Titles Designed Jos4 Antonio Garcia air marshall
Directed by
DonJ. Hi^ Kolbeco by Re-recording Mixers Paul Renteria
bad-tempered stress addict who thinks Todd Phillips Production Special Effects Prologue Films Ron Bartlett border guard
nothing of punching small children, Produced by Co-ordinators Supervisor End Titles D.M. Hemphill Marco Rodriguez
Todd Phillips Mark Swenson
and a psychotically clingy narcissist Wes de Bono Scarlet Letters Supervising Sound federall agent
Dan Goldberg 2nd Unit: Additional Editor Music Supervisors Editor Mimi Kennedy
who will listen to your most traumatic Screenplay Crystal McAlerney Davids. Clark Randall Poster Cameron Frankley Sarah's mom
childhood memory and then laugh Alan R. Cohen Atlanta: Supervising Art George Drakoulias Stunt Co-ordinator Tymberlee Hill
Alan Freedland Meredith Humbracht
right in your face. Naturally, tradition Director Soundtrack Allan Graf new mother
Adam Sztykiel Production Shepherd Frankel “Hold On I'm Cornin'" - Keegan-Michael Key
dictates that they will both grow and Todd Phillips
Accountant Art Directors Sam & Dave: “Psople CAST new father
learn from the experience of being Story Mary Sunshine Desma Murphy Are Crazy" -Billy Aaron Lustig
thrown together, but there are several Alan R. Cohen Location Managers Robert Downey Jr
Atlanta: Cumngton: “Yankee Dr Greene
Alan Freedland Ken Lavet Peter Highman
points in the story when it seems Director of
Clint Wallace Doodle House": "The JonCryer
Michael Burmeister Set Decorator White Room" - Cream: Zach Galifianakis Alan Harper
extremely unlikely that they will live Photography 2nd Unit: Danielle Berman “New Moon Rising" - Ethan Tremblay Charlie Sheen
long enough to do so, or that Peter’s Lawrence Sher Maida Morgan Property Masters Wolfmother: "Closing Michelle Monaghan Charlie Harper
Edited by
marriage will withstand his bloody- New Mexico: Mychael Bates Time" - Danny Sarah Highman
Debra Neil-Fisher Michael Dellheim - Juliette Lewis
minded determination to see the birth 2nd Unit: McBride: "Mykonos" Dolby Digital/DTS/
Production Designer
Atlanta: Dave Baumann Fleet Foxes; "This Is Why Heidi SDDS
of his first child, whose imminent Bill Brzeski
John Findley - MIMS, Jamie Foxx
Road Unit: I'm Hot" In Colour
arrival gives the film its title and its Music Post-production Darryl
Lawrence Tolle contains the sample Prints by
Chrlstophe Beck Supervisor Danny McBride
ticking-clock urgency. Whether you Construction “Walk with Me" -The Technicolor
Susan E. Novick Co-ordinator ARC Choir: "Old Man Lonnie [2.35:1]
care enough to root for their survival ©Warner Bros. 2nd Unit Director John Samson (Live at Massey Hall)" - RZA
is touch and go in our initial
itself: Entertainment Inc. and Allan Graf Costumes Designed Neil Young: "Hey You" - airport screener Distributor
Legendary Pictures Matt Walsh
sympathy for Peter is soon whisked out Assistant Directors by Pink Floyd: "Sweet Warner Bros.
Production TSA agent
from under our feet, while the pathos 1st: Jeffrey J.P Wetzel Louise Mingenbach Jane" - Cowboy Entertainment UK Ltd
Companies 2nd: Paul B. Schneider Brody Stevens
Costume Supervisor Junkies: "Is There a
of Ethan’s fatal inability to cope with Warner Bros. Pictures 2nd Unit Mitchell Kenney Ghost" -Band of limo driver 8,559 ft +4 frames
life has to struggle against the fact that presents in association 1st: Courtenay Miles
with Legendary Pictures
he is the most unbelievably irritating 2nd: William Purple
a Green Hat Films Script Supervisors
character ever to step out of a taxi in production SYNOPSIS Atlanta, the present. Peter, an uptight businessman whose wife is
Jeanne M. Byrd
a movie’s opening scene. Any token A Todd Phillips movie 2nd Unit: about to give birth to their first child, arrives at the airport to catch a flight home
Made with the
learning and growing that takes place Trudy Ramirez
to Los Angeles. His taxi is involved in an accident with a cab containing would-be
assistance of the Casting
by the closing credits is secondary to the Georgia Film. Music & actor and walking disaster-magnet Ethan, who is also en route to LA. The two men
Juel Bestrop
audience’s amazement at the characters’ Digital Entertainment
SethYanklewitz accidentally swap bags, and then Ethan involves Peter in a security alert, which
sheer survival in the face of brutal odds. Office, a division of the New Mexico:
Georgia Department of
leads to them both being placed on a no-fly list. With no money or ID, Peter is
That we worry about them at all is Jo Edna Boldin
Economic Development Aerial Directors
forced to accept a lift from Ethan and his dog.
down to the sterling work of Downey Executive Producers of Photography As they make their way across country, Peter is increasingly enraged by his
and Galifianakis, who embrace their Thomas Tull David Nowell travelling companion’s childishness, carelessness and monstrous self-regard. He
Susan Downey New Mexico:
characters’ egregious quirks with decides to steal Ethan’s car and leave him at a service station, only returning when
Scott Budnick Phil Pastuhov
gleeful tenacity and strain every sinew Co- producers he realises he has inadvertently taken Ethan’s father’s ashes, which Ethan plans to
Atlanta:
to make us believe they are human David Witz David Norris scatter at the Grand Canyon. Ethan, meanwhile, finds Peter surly and peevish, and
Jeffrey Wetzel
beings capable of redemption. And Camera Operators discovers he has a violent temper: Peter punches a small child, and is badly beaten
Associate Producer
they’re funny: Ethan may have all the A: Daniel Gold
in a fight with a disabled war veteran. Peter is hospitalised after Ethan falls asleep
Joseph Gamer B: Tommy Lohmann
best cringe-moments, but Downey has Unit Production at the wheel and flips the car. Ethan then gets Peter arrested at the Mexican border,
2nd Unit
some choice lines and clearly enjoys Manager A: Leo Napolitano only to hijack the border guards’ trailer with Peter inside it - a rescue that earns
David Witz
taking Peter down to the barrel-scraping B: Robert Scott
Peter’s grudging gratitude and respect.
Production Steadicam Operator
depths that he and we remember from Supervisors The pair arrive in LA just in time for the birth. Peter’s life is restored to normal
Tommy Lohmann
Downey’s own bad-boy days, reducing Candice Campos
and Ethan achieves his dream of appearing in his favourite TV sitcom.
him from a suit-wearing top dog to a 2nd Unit:

64 Sight & Sound January 2011

1 |
 I
intelligence as a writer, and his ability
SYNOPSIS Present day. Part-time writer Davy Mitchell is touring college towns
Easier with I
to provide a context for the actors to
give their best. That said, it also suggests
in Middle America, giving readings of his self-published short stories. His more
i

socially confident brother Sean is along for the ride and the girls. Davy answers a
Practice I

i
that Alvarez hasn’t really found his
although the
directorial voice yet, for
I

call in his motel room and, quite at random, has phone sex with ‘Nicole’, in what

film touches on some very raw feelings,

becomes a regular routine. TTieir conversations move beyond sexual gratification
USA 2009 i
I

it packages them in a rather soothingly

towards emotional intimacy but ‘Nicole’ resists Davy’s suggestion that they
Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez i

should meet.
familiar indie-sector aesthetic: fey
With Brian Geraghty, Kel O'Neill, I

Returning home, Davy goes back to temping and has a somewhat edgy date
I strummed guitars and ofThand vocal I

Marguerite Moreau, Jeanette Brox with Samantha, after which his mounting frustration causes him to hang up on
I
harmonies intrude to set the tone of
‘Nicole’ - who subsequently stops calling. Sean embarrasses Davy by letting slip
I
the viewer’s response and keep the
Self-published writer Davy is at first montages on track. The placement of about his telephone liaison, but this prompts Samantha to declare her affections.
i

bemused when his motel phone rings figures in wide-shot interiors affects a
However, Davy is so stressed by the demands of physical contact that he holes
I

and he finds himself speaking to the studied Edward Hopper-ish anomie, up at home for the next month.
I

‘Nicole’ finally calls: she’s sorted things out with her boyfriend Aaron, so
mysterious ‘Nicole’. Moments later,
i

1 while the road-trip landscapes are

the meeting is on. Davy travels to New Mexico, and is shocked to discover that
however, sensing a window of i
deployed for slightly contrived contrast
‘Nicole’ is actually a young gay black man named Aaron. As they talk, Davy
opportunity, he responds to her I with the otherwise intimate subject-
recognises a fellow lost soul. They hug, then Aaron departs.
unexpected sexual come-on and is I
matter. The material remains effective
nervously jerking off while the receivers I
yet one feels that the movie is hedging
burn hot with sex-talk so vivid it earned I
its bets, perhaps worried lest otherwise Production Hair Ronn L. Chick. Dennis RpyCostley
Co-ordinators Denise Barbosa Winslow; "Cause I’m motel manager
Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s debut feature an it will prove too tough for acceptance.
I
Janie Elliot Additional Music Down" - Clair Marb Kathryn Aselton
NC-17 rating. The camera stays on But there’s enough promise here to Marissa M. Gonzales GnegChun (Baker). Alexander Nicole
leading man Brian Geraghty as he runs I make one impatient to see what Alvarez Production Music Supervisors Baker: "Still Falling”
- Allison Hensel

through the gamut of emotions in a 1 does next. If he’s able to find a celluloid Accountant Marguerite Phillips Wayne Perry. Jerry bartender
Andrew Grey Johnson Colin Wyatt Marcum; "She Loved Gloria Alvarez
vivid ten-minute take. Genitalia are I
form for his insights, he’ll be a name Location Manager Soundtrack - Wayne
the Devil” i
bitchy boss
kept discreetly below the frame-line but i
to conjure with - even if he also needs Marcus Montano "Castle-Time" -Chris Perry. Jerry Marcum. Emelie O'Hara
otherwise this is courageously exposed I to get to grips with the fine line between Ftost-production Gameau: "Safety David Cole: "Hob crying girl
Supervisor Bricks" - Broken Social Hands and Fight" - The Sharon Van Ivan
stuff, delineating the sort of loneliness, an idea that’s thematically rich and
\
Alfonso Delgado Scene Presents: Kevin Rosebuds concierge
frustration and raw need for sexual I one that can be integrated dramatically Assistant Directors Drew: "Youth on My Sound Mixers Tracey Horsely
contact that drives the character to i
There’s no doubt here, for instance, 1st: Michael Breines Side" "Your Cover" ZacSneesby 1 Fairweather's hostess

accept such comfort from strangers. It’s that Davy’s long-anticipated encounter 2nd: Joe Moore Emily Easterly; Bayard Carey |
Molly Weber
I

Script Supervisor "Opportunistic" - Ian Thompson old woman

the sort of toe-curling set piece which, I with ‘Nicole’ broadens the story’s Gregory Doucette Source Victoria: "Art Re-recording Mixers Lauren Petzke
in other hands, might have been the I cultural and thematic scope - and Casting Isn't Real" - Deer Tick: Peters. Reale |
blonde woman
punchline in a gross-out comedy, yet again satisfyingly puts the actors Nicole Arbusto "On a Neck, on a Spit" - Todd Morrissey Danielle Lozeau
I

Joy Dickson "When We

Grizzly Bear: Supervising Sound waitress
while the scene is ridiculous, the joint I
through their paces - yet arguably it i

Additional Go.HowV\teGo.R.r- Editor

efforts of filmmaker and performer also
1

I does so at the cost of a certain narrative Photography Rock Plaza Central: "Lift Jeffrey Kaplan In Colour
make it poignant, allowing us to intuit I
credibilityDoes filmmaking get easier Bradley Stonesrfer Me Up" - Saturday [1.85:1]
Steadicam Operator Looks Good to Me:
the insecurities and emotional needs i
with practice? In Alvarez’s case, one
Beau Chaput "Carpetbaggers" -
CAST Distributor
leading to such circumstances. hopes so. Trevor Johnston Brian Geraghty
I
Gaffer Harlem Shakes: "The Axiom Films Limited
As Davy and ‘Nicole’ spend more Leonard E. Hoffman Start of Something" - Davy Mitchell !

phone time together - mirroring the CREDITS Director of Key Grip Voxtrot: "The Sediment" Kel O'Neill
I
Photography Kenneth Colbentz - Palaxy Tracks: “Darlin' Sean Mitchell
experiences of GQ writer Davy Rothbart, Directed by
I

I David Morrison Art Director Song" - The Watson Marguerite Moreau

whose autobiographical article Alvarez I
Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Editor Gary Barbosa Twins; “Ghost in the Samantha
has adapted for the screenplay - it Produced by Pemando Collins Property Master Gutter" -My Latest Jeanette Brox
I

Cookie Carosella Production Designer Brian Wenrich Novel: "Oh Mandy" - Sarah
swiftly becomes apparent that it’s more I

I
Producer Brooke Peters Costume Designer The Spinto Band: "Lost Jenna Gavigan j
I

than just a masturbation-aid for both of I

Kyle Patrick Alvarez I
Tom Soluri Swedish Pen Pals" - Josie
them. The talk turns to confessions and Written
I
©EWR LLC Wardrobe Supervisor Julian Nation; "Ain't Eugene Byrd
Kyle Patrick Alvarez Aaron
confidences. Davy’s keen to meet, I
Co-producer Gypsy Raven Marie Gonna Take It’; "No End
I
Based on the true story David Melito Key Make-up Artist in Sight" ‘Tell Me It's Lance Capaldi
‘Nicole’ slightly evasive. The ensuing by Davy Rothbart
I

I Bonnie Masoner True" - Robert J. Walsh, book store owner

will-they-won’t-they intrigue helps
Alvarez keep the plot in motion, but
I

it’s also clear that getting the sex out

of the way first allows Davy to feel at
ease with ‘Nicole’ in a way that’s not I

quite the case once he returns home

and resumes dating the surprisingly
supportive Samantha (Marguerite
Moreau, delivering as much warmth
and understanding as her nervy love
interest has any right to expect).
What’s particularly strong about the
writing here is that it takes time to I

reveal the fundamentals of Davy’s I

off-kilter psyche, giving the viewer a

I

sense of novelistic character depth -

I

though Alvarez also takes pains to

I

outline his protagonist’s sensitivity

I

and fundamental decency, making I

us share Samantha’s instinct that it’s

going to be worth the while digging

beneath that anxiously defensive (if
boyishly handsome) outer shell.
Alvarez certainly explores the
I

murkiest corners of the masculine

I

psyche, throwing light on what might

be termed erectile dysfunction of the 1

mind, since Davy is so perturbed by

the demands of physical intimacy
I

that he flees tearfully from Samantha’s i

embrace in another unflinching

extended single take. For a first feature. I

Easier with Pracf/ce undoubtedly

showcases Alvarez’s keen emotional Heavy bteather: Brian Geraghty

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 65
1
 Films
Dostoyevskian guilt. Their collective
Enemies testimony about the physical logistics
of slaughtering vast numbers of men,
of the People women and children with only the most
basic tools (modifying their technique
United Kingdom/ when their arms got tired) is rendered
increasingly horrifying by the gradual
Cambodia/USA 2009
accretion of detail - decomposing
Directors: Rob Lemkin,
corpses made the surrounding water
Thet Sambath
bubble as though boiling, while the
killers developed a taste for human
Ifone were to watch Enemies of the gall as a remedy for dengue fever. The
People withno subtitles and muted interviews are often conducted at or
soundtrack, one could easily get the near the actual sites of the killings,
impression of a tranquil, reflective film and a female passer-by says that while
about an old man looking back on his she’ll bathe in the water of the paddy

life while enjoying retirement with fields, she won’t ever drink it.

his family and visiting friends. Aside
from a few snippets of archive film
and a practical demonstration by
one of the ‘friends’ about what he
used to do for a living, there is little
visual indication that this film is
the Cambodian equivalent of Shoaii,
and often just as powerful.
For the old man is Nuon Chea, Pol
Pot’s ‘Brother Number Two’ and the
Khmer Rouge’s chief ideologist; his
visitors Khoun and Suon are former
footsoldiers who helped carry out the
slaughter of up to
two million people
in Cambodia’s Killing Fields between
1975 and 1979; and his interviewer is
investigative journalist Thet Sambath,
Given the film’s subject, the
intensely personal nature and
painstaking length of the decade-long
investigation, and the obvious risks
undertaken by Sambath and co-director
Rob Lemkin, it seems churlish to
nitpick about occasional structural
and contextual infelicities and the
frustrating way that Sambath’s response
to a genuine revelation is to show
it again through the distancing Who’s the daddy?: Ray Winstone
medium of an editing suite, reflect
on its significance and then change daughter and the revelation that in
the subject instead of continuing
the same line of questioning. But
Fathers lifeshe may not have been the little
princess he thought, takes her best
the film’s historical value
undeniable, and
is

may be more far-

already of Girls friend Emma to his bed. Nonetheless,
with Helen absent from the action
who lost three family members to reachingstill, as Sambath’s interviews United Kingdom 2010 in all but flashback, Emma serves for
the Khmer Rouge - information have been donated to the UN-backed Howman,
Directors: Karl both Frank and the audience as a
withheld from his interviewee for Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts Ethem Qetintas Hitchcockian ersatz, the knowable
several years in order to gain his trust. of Cambodia as evidence in Nuon woman as opposed to the forever
With Ray Winstone, Chloe Howman,
The situation is directly analogous Chea’s forthcoming trial for crimes mysterious dearly departed. And while
Glen Murphy, Lois Winstone
to a hypothetical descendant of against humanity. The fact that he is he doesn’t go so far as to remake her in
Holocaust victims tracking down only the second senior Khmer Rouge Certificate 15 76m Os Helen’s image, Frank showers Emma
and interviewing Heinrich Himmler figure to be called to account in court with his daughter’s possessions and
in a secluded rural part of Germany merely underscores the importance of Fathers ofGirh it would make a lovely prompts her to re-enact familiar rituals
some time in the 1970s, and just as Sambath’s work. Michael Brooke PhD title, wouldn’t it? From Broken of tea-making and table-laying. Their
uncomfortably riveting. Blossoms through Chinatown to, in the relationship is finally consummated
Sambath’s major scoop is that he CREDITS MEDIA Programme. last few years alone, films as varied as after he hears her repeat his dead
CBA-DFID Broadcast
finally persuades the old man to accept Directed ty Claire Denis’s 35 Shots ofRun% Heitor daughter’s final words: “You’re the best
Media Scheme. Screen
ultimate responsibility for the killings Rob Lemkin South. RIFE Lottery Dhalia’s Adrift dJid the Russo brothers’ daddy in the world!” Emma bellows
Thet Sambath
on camera, and indeed apologise to him Funding You, Me and Dupree, the history of over her shoulder to her mobster father
Produced by Executive Producer
personally for the loss of his family. But Rob Lemkin cinema is rife with daughters devoted Tommy as she, like Helen before her,
Sandra Whipham
Nuon Chea remains unrepentant about Thet Sambath Associate Producers
and delinquent, dads doting and drives off into the arms of another man.
the underlying ideology, constantly Written by domineering. Throughout, the theme It’s unclear whether this sinister
Justin Temple
Rob Lemkin
resorts to familiar euphemisms about Thet Sambath
forScreen South: of incest ranges from the explicitly subtext is intentional, but seen
Jo Nolan
‘solving problems’ and ‘stopping the Filmed by stated to the barely implied, but it’s otherwise as a straightforward study
Miranda Robinson
rot from spreading’ and ultimately Rob Lemkin Creative Consultants almost always lurking in the shadows. of parental loss, the film falls far short
Thet Sambath
blaming US imperialism. When shovm David Charap The tagline of Karl Howman and of the subtlety of, for example, Rachid
Editor
Jack Gold
footage of Saddam Hussein’s hanging Stefan Ronowicz
Ethem Qetintas’s film runs, “One Bouchareb’s similarly low-budget
Nona Anderson
in 2006, he expresses sorrow over the Music Dubbing Mixer man’s daughter is another man’s lover” London River, another tale of two
death of a fellow patriot, recognising Daniel Rgmberton Alan Snelling - a maxim Howman takes more literally children, two parents and the
a kindred spirit. than most by casting his own daughter fundamental unknowability of our
©Old Street Films/Thet
Although securing the interview Sambath WITH as the love interest of star/executive offspring. Indeed to some extent
was a coup in itself, little that Nuon Production Thet Sambath producer Ray Winstone, while Fathers of Girls struggles from the outset,
Companies Nuon Chea
Chea says is essentially surprising, Winstone’s little Electra, Helen, is let down by a picturesque, provincial
An Old Street Films/ Khoun
and the film’s real meat lies in the Thet Sambath played by his real-life daughter Lois. setting, plinky piano score and a general
Suon
interviews with those directly involved production Here, incest is more of a whisper than sense of the pedestrian which calls to
in the actual killings. They invariably Supported by grants In Colour/Black and a shout, as widower Frank Homer, mind Sunday-night TV dramas. It’s
from and made in White
adopt a Nuremberg-style ‘only obeying shellshocked by the loss of his only further hampered by clunky dialogue
association with 185 1]
:
[
orders’ defence - though some later Sundance Part-subtitled
express concern about how this might Documentary Film
SYNOPSIS Wiltshire, the present. Widowed solicitor Frank Homer’s only
Program. Gucci Tribeca Distributor
affect reincarnation chances after their
Documentary Fund. EC Dogwoof Pictures
daughter Helen, an art student, is found dead of a drugs overdose in the house
own deaths, in a Buddhist variant on she shared with her boyfriend Simon. Haunted by memories of Helen’s childhood
and the day she left home, Frank begins to delve into her private life. Simon
SYNOPSIS Pailin,Cambodia, 2000-07. Investigative journalist Thet Sambath reveals that the couple had grown apart and that Helen spent most of her
painstakingly tracks down Nuon Chea, Pol Pot’s ‘Brother Number Two’ during evenings in a local bar, the Spire, with best friend Emma. By hacking into Helen’s
the Khmer Rouge dictatorship of 1975-79. Among the regime’s victims were social networking account Frank tracks down Emma and asks her to help him
Sambath’s parents and brother - though Nuon Chea is initially unaware of clear Helen’s things. The two embark on a friendship.
this fact. Sambath also interviews Khoun and Suon, who carried out some Ron, the doorman at the Spire, tells Frank that he supplied Helen with dmgs at
of the killings, and introduces them to Nuon Chea. Nuon Chea absolves them, the behest of Emma’s father Tommy, the club’s owner. When Simon confesses that
saying they were only following orders. He apologises to Sambath for the loss Helen had taken up with an older man, who had recently ended the relationship,
of his family, but remains unrepentant about his political ideals. Frank concludes that Helen and Tommy were having an affair: Helen’s overdose was
On 19 September 2007, Nuon Chea is arrested and charged with crimes against suicide. Frank visits the Spire; he sees Tommy but leaves without confronting him.
humanity. That night, Emma visits Frank at home and they sleep together.

66 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
and a bizarrely banal voiceover, which
reaches ludicrous depths as Frank
jabbersaway to his missing daughter
while making a pot of tea: “Not too
weak, Dad,” “Alvdgh’ babe.”
What really lets Howman’s film
down, sadly enough, is its
Winstone
clearly a labour of love for
(he waived his fee) and you can see
how it might have worked on paper:
quintessential hardman Winstone plays
against type as a middle-class solicitor
reduced to a shambling sadsack by the
death of his child. But in the jowly,
pouting, beady-eyed flesh the actor fails
to shake off his longstanding persona.
Puffing and growling his way through
the script, all dropped aitches and
Fezeka's Vbice
United Kingdom 2009
Director: Holly Lubbock
Certificate PG 79m 35s
lead. It’s
In a high school in a deprived part of
South Africa, a group of young black
students are encouraged by their choir
master and mentor Phumi Tsewu to
look beyond the geographical and social
limits of the ghetto. Holly Lubbock’s
documentary Fezeka’s Voice is a film
of two neat halves - the first based in
and around Fezeka High School as the
students prepare for the forthcoming
concentrate on generating suspense -
I
long scenes in which
secure passports for two of the boys,
Phumi tries to
For Colored
for instance - or on the stark class
differences between the students and
Girls
their host families, rather than on the USA 2010
subtly compelling voices of the young
Director: Tyler Perry
people themselves. We cut away from
With Janet Jackson, Loretta Devine,
footage of the choir singing in front
Michael Ealy, Kimberly Elise
of a rapt audience in Salisbury to an
awkward sequence in which a host Certificate 15 133m 28s
mother leads two of the boys around
her vegetable garden, almost as though Say this for Tyler Perry: granted
the filmmakers don’t quite know where seemingly unlimited creative freedom
the real potency of their material lies. thanks to a string of consistently
|
Footage shot in the UK injects profitable, modestly budgeted hits,
a welcome energy, allowing the film’s he’s chosen to use his clout for what
1 key themes - equality, parity, aspiration is almost certainly the year’s least

glottal stops, he’s downright creepy. trip to the UK (since most have barely - to develop naturally. A shot of the commercial adaptation. Ntozake
It doesn’t help that Winstone’s most left the township, the exoticism of English and African choirs performing Shange’s 1974 ‘choreopoem’ For Colored
odious - and indelible - performance Salisbury almost unimaginable),
is together in Salisbury Cathedral Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When
was in Tim Roth’s 1999 77?e War Zone, and the second a more interesting near the end is strikingly symbolic. the Rainbow Is Enufis as unmarketable
in which his amorous feelings towards exploration of their interaction with Moments later, we’re told that many as its unwieldy title suggests: a series of
his daughters were anything but middle England. of the students have gone on to further plotless monologues delivered by seven
implicit. Not for nothing is Winstone The strength of the first 50 or so education. Though the film may unnamed women. Perry takes the texts
the go to guy for shady gangsters: even minutes lies in the individual stories sometimes lack focus or drive, then, them
as unalterable holy writ, stuffing
as a dad, it seems, he’s best when he’s of the young people, who live in an its message is ultimately more whole into a typically melodramatic
bad. Catherine Wheatley area afflicted by extreme poverty and valuable than the sum of its parts. plot where they might emerge at any
segregation (their township doesn’t I
*0* Chloe Roddick moment, their origin clearly not from
CREDITS James Hillier even have enough grave-plots to his functionally emotive prose. A police
Ron
Directed by
I

Luke Kempner
accommodate its dead). Sixteen-year- CREDITS Zuki Tsweu officer’s met with a
question might be
Helen Birchenough
Karl Howman Simon old Busi, for instance, talks candidly Directed feverish monologue (“Eyes crawling up
Ethem Cetintas
I
Sue Taylor
Roger Krtter about the death of her mother from Holly Lubbock
Francis Taylor on me, eyes crawling up my thighs”), a
FYoduced by Ricky Libra
;

Co-director
Riza Nur Pagalioglu
I

Suzanna Cetintas
Aids; a tiny, fragile-looking Nokwanda Jane Capper confession of past sexual transgression
Kess Bohan Fiona Evans
Written by
I
Helen Jr isdisarmingly articulate about the Produced
delivered as an actor’s showcase. The
Karl Howman Fezeka High School
Emma Vane difficulties of looking beyond poverty Kathenne Crawley constant mode-switching is jarring.
Ethem Cetintas
I
Choir
mum in coffee shop to higher education; 17 -year-old Zukisa JoAnne Fishbum New York City (establishing
Director of
i

Salisbury Community Set in

Laura Marklew Filmed
Photography waitress dreams of becoming a star. Choir shots plausibly cover up that most of
I Holly Lubbock
Digby Elliott Rainbow Choir
Samantha Hunt They are encouraged by the Edited the film was shot in Perry’s Atlanta
Edited 1:^ nightclub & coffee shop Orchestra
Ash Mills
I
paternalistic Phumi, whose Holly Lubbock homebase). For Colored Gzr/s juggles
i friend
Production Designer benevolence extends well beyond his Original Music In Colour nine different women whose paths
Head
Phillip
|

Neil Pollard
i
Ernie Wood I
[L78;l]
I
barman role as music teacher: he talks of weave in and out of each other’s way.
Music Dimitri Tchamouroff F*art-subtitled
Peter Ling |

Stuart Roslyn sleepless nights worrying about his Perry seems convinced he’s made the
Tommy's friend in
charges and we see him buying clothes
I

i
nightclub
©Ciel Productions
| Distributor black Short Cuts, though he doesn’t
©FoG Films Ltd June Thomas Production
for some of the worst off. Evidently an Productions have the rhythmic it. The
|
Ciel skill for
I

Production Companies I librarian

Companies
Silver Productions & Karen Smulovic
inspiring figure, quietly affirming the Ciel Productions stories are studiously mundane: high-
|
7.162 ft +1 frame
Linetilm for FbG Films Simon's fnend young people’s right to dream, and presents in association |
powered magazine executive Janet
Executive Producers with Corniche Pictures
I
Lewis Till aware of the choir’s importance as I
Jackson is unhappy in her marriage,
Karl Howman 2nd barman UK Film Council funded.
Ethem Qetintas
I
an alternative to poverty and gang Screen South
slutty Thandie Newton sleeps around
Isabella Qetintas
Ray Winstone \ young girl at coffee shop violence in the area, Phumi also Executive Producers and neglects her family, et al.
Associate Producers
I
Billy Miller provides a comic touch on screen Christopher Hird The point’s the same in every case:
Charles Armitage CSI offioer/lbmmy's Hani Farsi
Alan McQueen
I
that counteracts the gravitas of the
I
do not have sex ever, or even think
bodyguard Associate Producers
Accountant Elena Bennett film’s socialcommentary. At times, Jo Metcalf I
about it, because horrible things
Clive Rusden George
Ian William however, his performance feels artificial Colin Maltby |
will happen. You will get raped,
Location Manager Samantha Hunt
- a scene in which he angrily threatens Camera nearly die during an abortion or be
MikeWhealey coffee shop fnends
I UK: I

Continuity SueRoynon to cancel the trip because some students Kess Bohan
unable to conceive because of prior
I
Llinos Mair Pritchard
I
lady \walking dogs have arrived a few minutes late for a Soundtrack untreated STDs. Even marriage is
Casting Steve Jones
rehearsal is almost parodic, as though "The Armed Man"- I
inadvisable, lest your partner turn
Linefilm Ltd skipper. ‘Silver Spirit of
1
The Rainbow Choir
Gaffer RDOle' he is playing a version of himself for I

out to be gay and (inevitably) infect

Hampton
I “Ebben?Neandr6
Brian
you with HIV. All these things -
|
Dina Lees the benefit of the camera. I
lontana" from "La I
Art Director nightclub friend
Richard Uoyd-Jones
I
Though rich in pathos, the Wally" by Alfredo and more - are visited upon Perry’s
Mike Wheeler |

- Ren^
Catalan!
Prop Master nightclub DJ documentary lacks focus, tending to [
women, broken up only by monologues
Clive Rckaid Reming: "Thixo Bawo"
Carl Thompson I
|
delivered in deeply unflattering
Costume Designer
:
-members of Fezeka
NadgerW^bb |

close-ups. (Poor Whoopi Goldberg,

;

Julie Evans Debra Lamb SYNOPSIS A documentary about i

High School Choir: |

Hair/Make-up Designer "Hambini Madoda'; "Xa all bug-eyed religious mania, is the
coffee shop extras the Fezeka High School Choir, I
|

Stacey Kutzak Ndiyekelwa”. "U

Soundtrack
I
Ian Hilditch
which comprises 77 underprivileged Nonggquwuse”. "U
stuff future internet memes will be
Joe Malik
"Not So Easy for Me" young people from the Qonggotwane" born from.)
doormen
John H. Stracey; "Can't
I

"Undil^athalele" - Even for the church-circuit market

Philippa Burt impoverished Guguletu township
Stop"; "Rescue Me"; Cheung Fezeka High School
Ling
in South Africa. Inspired by music Perry got started on and panders to,
"Searching"; "Soul Choir: "Superstar" -
Nicholas Dixon
Searching"; "Arrival”; teacher Phumi Tsewu, they train Busiswe Ndlebe:
the severity of the message seems
EllieRae Winstone \

"Revelation”; "The Dawn" Adam Jackson for a once-in-a-lifetime performance I

"KonkeOkwam"- |
overplayed: his ideal seems pretty
Sound Recordist Ingonyama
library extras
the Salisbury Arts Festival, where
I
close to voluntary chemical castration.
Steve Sheam
I
at
Sound Mixer
Re-recording Mixer Colour they have been invited to sing. The
i

His racial politics community

call for
I In Luke Hatfield |

Kath Pollard
I [235:1] film follows the ups and downs of Sound Editor solidarity: “There’sno colour in this
their preparations for the concert I
Ed Railton I office,” community organiser Loretta
CAST Distributor
Devine chides Jackson, “including you.”
Soda Pictures and the journey to England, where
Ray Winstone
I

they live for two weeks with local

WITH Unexpectedly, the film’s very much
Frank Horner
6340 ft +0 frames Phume Tsewu in favour of condom usage, which is
Chloe Howman families.
JulieSondayise irrelevant: all sexual interaction here
Emma Salerno We learn that, a year after their Zukisa Nya^
I

Glen Murphy is strictly pathological. Perry goes for

return to South Africa, many of the Nokwanda Bovana
Tommy Salerno I
students have gone on to higher Busi Ndlebe the gusto, but his views seem moored
Lois Winstone i

Thobela(PeterO someplace far before 1974.

Helen Homer education.
I

Ntshanyana
Vadim Rizov

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 671
 Films

Fred
The Movie
USA 2010
Director: Clay Weiner
With Lucas Cruikshank, Pixie Lott,
Jennette McCurdy, Jake Weary
Certificate 12A 83m 10s

Growing up in Columbus, Nebraska

(population hovering around 20,000),
deeply bored teenager Lucas
Cruikshank came up with ‘Fred
Figglehom’, a YouTube celebrity
whose channel was the first to gain
more than a million subscribers and
whose work - since his first filming
in 2006 - has gained more than 625
million video views. In the videos,
Fred - then six years old, with a
missing father and alcoholic mother
- shrieked ina nearly unlistenable
voice (speeded up multiple times),
appealing exclusively to those under
No sex please: Jason Graham, Thandie Newton ten years old.
Fred’s cinematic debut is produced

CREDITS Nzingha Stewart Gaffer Department Head "Ansomnia" - Zaki Macy Gray by cynically successful director Brian
Michael Paseomek Kevin Murphy Make-up Ibrahim: "Drive Me Rose
Robbins {Varsity Blues, Norbitsind
Directed by Co-producer Key Grips Anita Gibson Crazy" - Miss EightyC; Khalil Kain
Tyler Perry
Charisse Nesbit Wayne Parker
J. Key Make-up Artist "Settle” -Gladys Bill
himself a former child star on the
Produced by Line Producer NY Unit: Dionne Wynn Knight; "Sun" - Lalah Richard Lawson 1980s sitcom Head of the Class), directed
Tyler Perry Department Head
Deborah A. Evans Richard Guinness Jr Hathaway; "La Donna in Frank by commercials director Clay Weiner
Paul Hall Unit Production Charlie Marroquin Hairstylist Viola" by Aaron Zigman Rayna Tharani
Roger M.Bobb Manager - Karen Slack, Andrea and worked from a script by Family
Visual Effects Kenneth Walker Renee
Written for the screen Joseph R Genier 2G Digital Key Hairstylist Jones-Sojola, The Jaycee Williams Guy executive producer David A.
by Production Supervisor Special Effects Valerie Gladstone Hollywood Studio Kenya Goodman. The resulting film is
Tyler Perry Tim Andrew Co-ordinators Main Title /Travel Symphony Orchestra: Thomas ‘Deuce’ more tolerable than Fred’s
infinitely
Based upon the stage Production Justin Crump Sequence Design "You Know (I'm at It Jessup
play entitled For Colored Co-ordinators Eric A. Martin Roklt Again)"- Soul P: K\wame YouTube excursions (his voice here is
Gids Who Have Cheryl A. Miller Art Directors End Titles "Sechila (A senhora em MayZayan pitch-shifted rather than speeded up,
Considered Suicide NY Unit: Roswell Hamrick amarelo)”-The
Scarlet Letters Katina which makes it less abrasive), thanks
When the Rainbow Is Adi Amit NY Unit: Score Performed by Carondelet Percussion John Crow
finufby Ntozake Shange Goodman’s
to Weiner’s visual slickness,
Production Audrey Soodoo Raphael Hollywood Studio Ensemble: "Stand Up” - Dr Davis
Director of Accountant Set Designer Symphony Orchestra Macy Gray; "Without a Michael Cory Davis penchant for random curveballs and
Photography Derek Yip Danny Brown Violin Solos Performed Fight" - Janelle Mon^e: manl the - probably inadvertent - darkness
Alexander Gruszynski Location Managers Set Decorators "Four Women" - Nina Jason Graham
Editor
of Cruikshank’s original creation. (Fred
John H. Findley III C. Lance Totten Joshua Bell Simone, Simone, Laura man 2
Maysie Hoy NY Unit: NY Unit: Choir Member Soloist Izibon Ledisi, contains a Ayo Sorrells was already plenty dark: in one of his
Production Designer Ian MacGregor Amanda Carroll Elissa Johnston sample of "Four man 4 YouTube videos he gibbered feverishly,
Ina Mayhew M. Smith Property Masters Orchestrations Women" - Nina Kendrick Cross
Collin having not taken his medication, and
Music by/Score Post-production Kathleen Kasinger JerryHey Simone: "I Know Who man 5
ranted about a drawing he’d made of
I

Conducted by/Piano Supervisor NY Unit: Aaron Zigman Am” - Leona Lewis Joe Amato
Performed by Carl Pedregal Kevin Ladson Music Supervisor Production Sound driver an adult abusing a child.)
Aaron Zigman Assistant Directors Construction JoelC. High Mixer Ambrya Underwood The film was made independently,
1st: Roger M.Bobb Co-ordinators Soundtrack Damian Elias Canelos gidl
©\fery Perry Films
then sold to children’s network
2nd: Angi Bones Jay M. Womer ‘What More Can They Antonio Arroyo Jackie Prucha
Production Script Supervisor NY Unit: Do" - Laura Izibon Re-recording Mixers nurse
Nickelodeon for US broadcast (it
Companies Amy Blanc Lacy Richard Tenewitz "Longer & Stronger" - Gary Summers Holly Crawshaw received 7.8 million viewers when it
Lion^teandTPS Sharon Jones & The
Casting Costume Designer Daniel J. Leahy waitress premiered); the smart casting of UK
present a 34th Street Robi Reed Johnetta Boone Dap-Kings; "I Found Supervising Sound Roevely Rancell
Films/Lionsgate Camera Operators Costume Supervisors God in Myself Editor nurse
pop star Pixie Lott (seven top-20
production A: Ted Chu Darlene Jackson (Ntozake’sSong)”- Mike Wilhoit David Feigenbaum singles and counting) assures its
A film by Tyler Perry B: Brant S. Fagan NY Unit: Mem Nahadr: "All Day Stunt Co-ordinators security guard The film concerns
British release.
Executive Producers Steadicam Operator Careen Fo\Mes Long (Blue Skies)" Atlanta: Karen Slack
OzzieAreu Fred’s journey to winning over his
Brant S. Fagan Estelle; "Alone in My Scott Dale soprano 1
Joseph R Genier Room” - Danny Wayne; NY: Arvdrea Jones-Sqjola
British dream girl, a standard-issue
Eddie Watkins soprano 2 geek-becomes-man saga deranged
SYNOPSIS New York City, the present. Crystal’s Iraq War veteran boyfriend
Jeanette lllidge almost beyond recognition. On the
sopranos
Willie drinks heavily and doesn’t take his medication, abusing her and the
CAST Jazmia Battle
journey from his suburban house to
children; socialworker Kelly tries to help, but is distracted when she learns that Janet Jackson dancer his beloved Judy’s party, Fred (now
Jo (Red) Morgan Caldwell rather than six) takes the bus (the
an untreated STD has rendered her infertile. Crystal’s boss - fashion magazine Loretta Devine
15
Sakinah Davis
magnate Jo - is experiencing her own marital difficulties. film, recognisably shot in Los Angeles,
Juanita (Green) Ashlee Gillum
neighbour Tangie sleeps around, while her sister Nyla lives with their
Crystal’s Michael Ealy Chantia Robinson
doesn’t skimp on the grim realities of
religious fanatic mother Alice. Nyla takes dance lessons with Yasmine, who is
Beau Willie Sarah Soto the derelicts of much public transport),
Kimberly Elise Alexis Whitehead
raped on a second date. Crystal forgets a paper Jo needs for a meeting; Jo drives runs into a talking deer, and generally
Crystal (Brown) Brionna Williams
Crystal to her apartment. Willie, convinced that Crystal’s having an affair and that Omari Hardwick has a weird time.
dancers
the children may not be his, throws them out of the window to their deaths. Jo, Carl Taja Riley Fred’s persona is somewhere between
Kelly and community organiser Juanita converge to support a now suicidal Crystal.
Harper
Hill 'rbsmine dance double Tom Green’s shrieking abrasion, Jim
Donald
After a back-alley abortion almost leaves her dead, Nyla is attacked by Alice Varney’s Ernest’s gleeful moronocism,
Thandie Newton Dolby Digital/SDDS
and runs away. Spotted by Kelly, she’s brought to clean up in Crystal’s apartment, Tangie (Orange) Colour 1^ Pee-wee Herman’s deliberate regression
where she reconciles with Tangie. Alice attacks Tangie for letting Nyla get an Phylicia Rashad DeLuxe and Mr Bill’s shrill expectations of
Gilda
abortion and reminds her that she was molested as a child; neighbour Gilda
[L85;l] catastrophe. The randomised joke
Anika Noni Rose
overhears and lectures Tangie on confronting her past so that she can stop sleeping Yasmine (Yellow) Distributor
approach is strictly Family Guy. in
around. A traumatised Yasmine begins to recover after her rapist is killed. Juanita Tessa Thompson Lionsgate UK between musical numbers come bits
Nyla (Purple) of sociopolitical commentary. Fred’s
breaks up with her unfaithful boyfnend Frank. Jo learns that she has contracted
Kerry Washington 12.012 ft +0 frames
HIV from her husband, who has gay sex on the sly. house (and the whole film’s universe)
Kelly (Blue)
is a dead-on suburban nightmare; his
All the women, now friends, converge for a party celebrating Nyla’s impending Whoopi Goldberg
move to college. Alice (White) dumb, pasty, loutish, bullying enemy
Kevin screams, “I’m the king of the

68 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
 B;Tim Hennessy John Cena psyche, leading to a brawny standoff
SYNOPSIS US. the present. Fred
Figglehorn has a crush on his
Steadicam Operator
Jake Avignone
Gaffer
Fred’s dad
Oscar Nunez
Lorenzo
In Our Name between him and her supportive
army comrade Paul, and thereafter
neighbour Judy, but her boyfriend to a brutal attack on a local Muslim
Jeff Fitzgerald Stephanie Courtney United Kingdom 2010
- bully Kevin - stands in his way. mom
Key Grip Kevin’s
Director: Brian Welsh minicab driver who has protested
When Fred’s alcoholic mother Tim Staubs Pixie Lott
against British military involvement
tells him that Judy has moved, he
Art Director Judy With Joanne Froggatt, Mel Raido,
Thomas Obed Jack Coughlan in Iraq. By trying to cover so many
embarks on a trip to declare his Chloe-Jayne Wilkinson
Set Decorator young Fred bases, the film becomes increasingly
love. After overcoming various Ryan Leegate Mak Kriksciun superficial and its argument somewhat
obstacles en route, he arrives at Property Master Evan Weiss
little

Jason Kisvardy Robert Noble

Dedicated to “the thousands of fuzzy (beyond the simple notion of
Judy’s house, where she is having servicemen and women who have been supporting our servicemen and women
Costume Designer #6 bus driver
a party. Fred accidentally vomits Lydia Raddon Gary Anthony Williams incarcerated in British prisons after in their hour of need). This is typified
on her. Humiliated (and exposed Costume Supervisor laundromat manager
attempting to return to civilian life”, by a somewhat arbitrary suspense finale
Astrid Gallegos John Gatins
to YouTube ridicule in the process),
Make-up Department carv/ash clerk 1 Brian Welsh’s film is clearly on the side involving Suzy’s daughter getting hold
he decides to stage a fake party with Head Bambadjan Bamba of Joanne Froggatt’s embattled private of the pistol her mum has illicitly
the help of Judy’s friend Bertha. After Michelle Buhler carv/ash clerk 2
as she copes with post-traumatic stress smuggled out from the barracks.
publicly ‘disinviting’ everyone from Mechanical Deer Kirsten Berman
Provided 1^ Fiat driver
disorder on returning home to the By showing Suzy joining in the
attending, they upload a video that
Aiiciloiiiorpliex Jordan Black north-east after a tour of duty in Iraq. assault on the cabbie, the film is
makes it look as if the party is a big Puppeteers Gary The most positive aspect of this steely enough to avoid portraying its
success. Everyone at school denies Robert Devine Dave Silva
modestly budgeted drama is that it heroine as a saint in combat fatigues,
they weren’t invited, and Fred VcilCrav^ord man who doesn’t speak
Hair Department Head English throws dramatic light on a genuine but the loss of focus in the writing is
becomes popular. Judy comes to Roxxi Dott Chris Wylde problem that’s too easily ignored on disappointing given the evident skills
Fred’s house to sing with him. Main Title Sequence security guard
these shores (but given rather more Welsh displays behind the camera.
Patrick Hruby Kevin Olson
Music Supervisor older Evan Weiss
fulsome cinematic treatment in US His experience as an editor perhaps
cul-de-sac” - a perfect encapsulation Madonna Wade-Reed Edith Jefferson offerings, includingJim Sheridan’s comes into play in the assured way
of the milieu. Weirder still are Fred’s Soundtrack old woman Brothers, Oren Moverman’s The he finds the right rhythm for each
"Waiting for the Heart to Cassandra Braden
hallucinations of his missing father,
Beat"- Lights On; "Fire #7 bus driver
Messenger and Kimberly Peirce’s scene, often creating effective moments
played by WWE wrestler John Gena, Burning"- Lucas Alicia Favela Stop-Loss). Indeed, we come away of pause for reflection for both Suzy
who not only headlocks his imaginary Cruikshank; "Love Will girll with an understanding of what it’s and the audience. Deft framing together
KeepUsTogether”- Jazzlyn Marae
son but also at one point dons like to leave the comradeship of with the just-so physicality of Froggatt’s
Jake Weary. Pixie Lott: girl 2
camouflage and puts him in an army "Solid"- Ashford & Dallas Lovato
frontline service behind, to face the persuasive central performance creates
Humvee. The implication - Fred Simpson; "Jig-a-to"- girl 3 very different demands of home life a sense from the outset of a woman
justifying his stalker love by Thelonius Carter Jr; Ronald Hysten with a husband and daughter who entirely edgy in her domestic
"Dynamite". "The Deal Is boyl
remembering his late father’s death in have become virtual strangers - not surroundings. These quiet moments
Off" -The Measles; Eddy Martin
Iran - is even weirder than you’d expect. "International boy2 to mention the challenge of putting bring an element of finesse to the film’s
The film isn’t perfect; as with Family; Competition"- Cherry Trevor Brown guilt- wracked images of the dead and evident compassion and commitment,
Gup, not all the jokes connect (though Orange: "Schemin"'- boy3 wounded to one side and just getting on yet a more crafted script might have
Julie Bellamy; "Fuego"- Clay Weiner
the success rate is generally higher), with the everyday. Welsh’s screenplay lifted the end result up a few notches
Inno featuring Anthony: Danny Janetti
and a few token concessions to the "KickVbFeetUp"- makes a potent point in a scene where from enterprising effort to finished
Nickelodeon sensibility are inevitable. Marty James; "Let's Dolby Digital Froggatt’s increasingly frayed Suzy article. Trevor Johnston
Go"- KU: "Boys and In Colour
But in its own way Fred The Movie isn't plays down her problems in a debriefing
Girls"- Pixie Lott: "Live It [L78:l]
that far from Terry Gilliam’s Tideland Up": “Who’s Ready to with her superior officer, because she CREDITS Line Producer
Paul Garcia
(2005): one messed-up kid trying to Party"- FRED Distributor doesn’t want it to show on her record Directed by Associate Producer
make sense of a messed-up world of Sound Supervisors LionsgateUK and affect her chances of promotion. Bnan Welsh
David Kitchens
forEscape Rims
parental abuse any way he can, just From there on the proceedings Produced Pumima Ramadorai
Ben Zara i 7,484 ft +9 frames Michelle Eastwood
in a funnierand more consistent way. pretty much devolve into thriller mode, Production Manager
Production Sourvd
Written by
Edwin Mingard
Vadim Rizov Mixer No US theatrical with tension simmering away while Brian Welsh
Production
Matthe\w Nicolay release:
Re-recording Mixer/ Nickelodeon tx 18
we wonder if Suzy’s mounting paranoia Cinematographer Accountant
Sam Care
CREDITS Production
Supervising Sound September 2010 will fragment into complete psychosis
Editor
Laura Ferguson
Accountant Location/Unit
Directed!^ Editor and put her young daughter in danger. Hazel Baillie
JeffMcCaig
Davd Barber Manager
Clay Weiner Location Manager It’s an understandable strategy when Production Designer
Stunt Co-ordinator Jamie Korn
Screenplay Jason Kay trying to hold an audience sensing a Anna Lavelle Assistant Directors
David A. Goodman Kim Robert Koscki Music
Post-production turn-off in the subject-matter, but it 1st; Malcolm Davies
Based on the character Supervisor Stuart Earl
2nd; Lynsey Palmer
'Fred Figglehorn’
Don Dunn CAST leaves the film looking as if it’s chasing
Script Supervisor
created by Lucas Assistant Directors short-term sensation rather than a ©Ivanorite Ltd/NFTS
Lucas Cruikshank Frankie Appleton
Cruikshank Production
1st; Lyda Blank Fred Figglehom/Derf coherent thematic through-line for Casting Director
Director of
2nd; Billy Greenfield
Companies Sam Claypole
Jennette McCurdy Suzy’s troubled progress. After a few
Photography Script Supervisor Curzon Artificial Eye and Script C^sultant
Bertha
Scott Henriksen
Sherie Giehtbrock grainy (and none too convincing) NETS present in Sarah Golding
Jake Weary
Film Editor
Casting flashbacks to the image of a dead association with BBC Gaffer
Kevin
Ned Bastille Sheryl Levine Films and Front Page
Alex Veitch
Siobhan Fallon Hogan Iraqi child, she relives her traumatic
Production Designer Camera Operators Films an Escape Films
Joshua Locy
Fred's mom experiences for the benefit of a stunned and AID Films
Edit Consultant
A; Jake Avignone Nicolas Chaudeurge
Music Composed and junior-school classroom, at which production Art Director
Conducted by Executive Producers
point it’s as if Welsh is unsure where to Michael Costine
Roddy Bottom Philip Knatchbull
take the story next. The drama changes NikR)well
©Derf Films. LLC tack to focus on Suzy’s volatile soldier Daniel Chamier
Production husband Mark’s even more damaged
Companies
Varsity Pictures
presents in association SYNOPSIS North-east England, present day. Suzy, a private in the British Army,
\Mth The Collective
Executive Producers
has returned home after a tour of duty in Iraq. She struggles to readjust to life
Lucas Cruikshank with her squaddie husband Mark and their daughter Cass; she is unable to meet
Gary Binkow Mark’s sexual demands and is traumatised by images of an injured Iraqi child.
Evan Weiss
Worried that admitting to her problems will affect her chance of promotion,
Michael Green
Brian Robbins
she underplays the situation to her senior officer, but when called on by her
Sharia Sumpter teacher sister Marie to do a presentation at a junior school, she breaks down
Bridgett while recalling her guilt at the Iraqi child’s death. Increasingly paranoid,
Co-producer
she becomes obsessed with protecting her own daughter. Mark convinces
Meghann Collins
Line Producer/Unit himself that Suzy had an affair with fellow private Paul while on duty. After
Production Manager a confrontation between the two men, Suzy and Mark take part in a vicious
Don Dunn
attack on a Muslim minicab driver who has expressed understanding for
Production
Co-ordinator fundamentalists. Suzy discovers photographs of Mark posing with Iraqi corpses.
Dan Suhart She takes a pistol from the barracks and goes with Cass to the nearby woods.
While her mother sleeps, Cass fires the gun, bringing Suzy to her senses.
Popular front: Jennette McCurdy

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 69
1
 Films
the grandmother memories of

Loose the dramatic choice she

her wedding day.
made on

Cannons Ozpetek derives a cinematic

charge by casting Italian leading
Italy 2010 man Riccardo Scamarcio (Mp Brother
Is an Only Child, The Best of Youth)
Director: Ferzan Ozpetek
as gay younger brother Tommaso.
With Riccardo Scamarcio, Nicole
He’s a familiar figure in Ozpetek’s
Grimaudo, Alessandro Preziosi
oeuvre: quiet, watchful, overshadowed
by his large family, slightly martyred
The opening of Loose Cannons is by his love for them. Tommaso is
organised around a big family also a frustrating figure, relatively
occasion of the type that has become passive in the dilemma created by
known (and sometimes derided) his brother Antonio beating him
in the Italian press as an ‘Ozpetek to the punch by coming out at the
meal’, after Turkish-born, Italian-based dinner. Having arrived in Lecce full
director Ferzan Ozpetek’s frequent of Roman cosmopolitan verve, he
staging of convivial, sensual gatherings immediately reverts to filial duty
atwhich relationships are made and even when confronted by his parents’
broken amid overlapping conversations agonising homophobia towards
and startling declarations. Dynamically Antonio. Once on the factory floor,
cinematic in their characterisation he also conforms to class when
and cinematography, these meals negotiating with the workers, and
border on Italian national stereotype, spends increasing amounts of time
propelled by lavish production with his co-manager Alba, who is
design and expressive gestures that both business-sawy and stunningly
risk camp - a charge that can be beautiful, pitched by her father as
levelled at Ozpetek’s latest film as a match for one of the brothers.
a whole, not least in comparison Alba is one of a suite of women in
to Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love{2oog), the film, including the grandmother
Total recall: Chloe-Jayne Wilkinson, Joanne Froggatt a higher-profile release which and her daughter Luciana (who
similarly begins with a dinner where pretends she is being burgled frequently
Costume Designer Alex Kinsey ScottCarter Natasha Rapkin
KateEcx:les Ed
1

Dominic Clanzel David Watson

management of a family company to excuse the presence of her never-
Hair/Make-up Arabella Amott Mark Clanzel kids outside house is passed from father to son. seen lover), who have been damaged
Designer school mum Mark Condor Noz Islam Albeit less highly stylised than by social pressure to conform. In
Marie Morgan Peter Michael Grant Longstaff Mohhamed
Special Effects McGowan soldiers on the hill
Taj
Iram Muhtar
I Am Love, Loose Cannons is a tender Tommaso and his boyfriend Marco
Make-up Designer man on train Jacob Anderton neighbours response to Italian cinematic history and their devil-may-care flirtatious
Photography: Natalie Dandy Jessica Booth Bablul Haque and familial culture. While secrets friends, these women find role
Mark Danbury school child 1 Katherine Clarke Karan Jary
and lies enfold, and unfold within, models for setting themselves free,
Arcade Music by Robyn James Sally Collett Louis Quinn
Matthew Davidson school child 2 Laura Cropper hoodies
the clan in each film, the fact that or so the film suggests. In the final
Soundtrack Becky Eskandari Stacey Emsiie Rachel Campbell the primary revelation in Loose from melodrama into a
act, it drifts
- Abdul Miah Nathalie Johnston Stacey Emsiie
"Paralyser". “Freefalf Cannons is of closeted homosexuality fantasia basedon Olma’s ultimate,
Tribazik; "Balle Sharva” Emad Sadr Beka Keenan Peter Gleeson
- first confessed by the younger to exaggerated act of free will and her
-Tigerstyie; “Dubby actors for Iraq Stephanie Lang Emme Hocking
Tune" - Christian Fenn photographs Lauren Morrison Beka Keenan the older brother, and then by the last testament; her funeral shifts,
Sound Recordists Timothy Williamson Ali Pritchard Stephanie Lang older brother (and heir apparent) imaginatively, into a return to her
Adam Carr tram worker Francesca Scott Lauren Morrison
to the assembled company - allows wedding party at which everyone
Michael Gandham Chris Bailey Charlotte Sisson bowlers
Re-recording Mixer/ Richard Gardner arcade players Anthony A. Abladeya Ozpetek to explore and exploit the is free to dance with everyone else,

Supervising Sound Geoff Joves Laura Biziou-Van Pol Mark Allison essential comedic campness of across genders, generations, rejection,
Editor Marc McDougall Joseph De Haan James Byers melodrama, and to include a Priscilla- and even death. Inverting the opening
Christopher Wilson Jack Parret couple in street Chris Campbell
style musical interlude in Speedos dinner, the dance silences the loud
Stunt Co-ordinator soldiers on tram Chris Bailey Raymond Carr
Wayne Thompson Danielle Pilmore Colette Conkin Robert Davidson when younger brother Tommaso’s voices and their homophobic jokes,
Police Consultant David Robinson Natalie Denholm Mark Golightly friends from Rome’s drag scene evoking a sensual, spirited world
Nick Sharpling Ben Spence Owen Jackson Eddy Good arrive to thrill conservative Lecce. that is equally a Mediterranean
train passengers Jade Paldreymen Pauline Good
Paul Irwin Liam Mainstone Dennis Hewitt
The film also makes manifest the cliche, but suggesting - through
CAST Natasha McIntyre Virag Norbert Liam Thornton homophobia and sexism that are the closeness of two handsome
Joanne Froggatt David J. Ross Mark Robertson Garth Warson not particularly latent in Italian brothers - that there was always
Suzy Emma Short GregTenkinson additional supporting
Mel Raido culture, in a generational tale of something queer about it.
Helen Taylor soldiers in barracks artists
Mark Joyce Taylor Connor Massey repeated repression framed by Sophie Mayer
Chloe-Jayne Wilkinson party goers Martin Soulsby Dolby Digital
Cass Callum Courtney kds in street In Colour
Andrew Knott Lediana Devolli Brian Allen [L85:l] SYNOPSIS Lecce, Apulia, the present. The Can tone family are assembling for
Paul Chantelle Gamer Ian Bailey a dinner at which patriarch Vincenzo will formally hand over management of
Janine Leigh John Coldwell
Chantelle Kelly Distributor
the family’s pasta factory to his two sons - Antonio, an assistant manager at
Marie Sani Roka Magar Ben Creighton Artificial Eye Film
Drew Horsley the factory, and younger brother Tommaso, who now lives in Rome, ostensibly
Priscille Mbikayi Raul Curry Company
Tony Shannon McAteer Ken Davidson studying business.
John Henshaw Jack McLeod Annie Eccles Tommaso has returned to Lecce with two bombshells to drop at dinner,
Frank Connor Morgan Jane Eccles
Anna Maria Gascoigne
which he first confesses to Antonio: he has been studying literature, and writing
Lucy Thomas John Elsender
Sandra Natasha White Harry Flexman a novel; and he is gay. Before Tommaso can tell the assembled company, however,
Bill Fellows Carly Wilkinson Martyn Grahame Antonio steals his thunder by announcing that he is gay, prompting Vincenzo
Dr Tennant Courtney Wilson Diane Heslop to bar him from the house and have a heart attack.
Shah Amin schoolchildren Marc Hutton
taxi driver Sharon Can- Richard Law
Tommaso, fearful for his father’s health, remains in Lecce to manage the
Begum Coskum Jane Gallon Ian McCabe factory, aided by the attractive and canny Alba, daughter of his father’s associate.
Iraqi girl Veronica Merabet David Rose He becomes the man of the household for his homophobic mother, his alcoholic
Steve Wraith Kelly Telford David Ross
sergeant
aunt and his diabetic grandmother, lost in memories of her wedding day. At the
drill Mandy Turnbull MattTeasdale
Lawson Hind playground mothers Lee Thompson same time he is trying to work on his novel and maintain a phone relationship
pub friend Morgan Fitzharris John Waters with boyfriend Marco.
Val MacLane Shy Mallabum Mary Weatherson Eventually Marco takes matters into his own hands: he travels from Rome
landlady Bettiany Man- Terry Wright
Therase Neve Beth McKenna
with a group of glamorous gay friends for a beach weekend in Lecce, where they
British Legion drinkers
trolley lady Lila Merabet Michaela Jayne charm the Cantone women and flirt with the Cantone men, provoking a crisis
Teresa Critchley playground children Charlton of conscience for Tommaso when they leave. His grandmother, founder of the
teacher Lauren Balhmain- Martyn Forsyth
factory, determines to use her will to set herself - and her troubled children and
Dennis Jobling Davies Isabd Harris
John Peter Brown Lynsey Palmer grandchildren - free.

70 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
CREDITS Gaffer Alessandro Preziosi Dolby Digital Gad’s Jonah Hill-styled vulgarity,
Directed by
Ferzan Ozpetek
I
Emilio Scattaretico
Key Grip
I
Antonio Cantone
Ennio Fantastichini
In Colour

[235:1] |j(ive& reaching a mirthless live-by-the-sword

low when Jamie suffers a comic Viagra
Onofrio Massimo Vincenzo Cantone Subtitles

Other Drugs
I
I
Produced by Galiano Lunetta Saviano overdose at a pyjama party. Yet the
I

Domenico Procacci Construction Manager

Story/Screenplay
I
Stefania Cantone Distributor one interesting thing about the many
Massimo Sergianni llaria Occhini Peccadillo Pictures Ltd I

Ivan Cotroneo Director: Edward Zwick sex scenes between the lead couple
Costume Designer I
grandmother
Ferzan Ozpetek
Alessandro Lai Bianca Nappi Italian theatrical title
With Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne is how they reverse conventional
Director of |

Key Make-up Elena, Tbmmaso's sister Mine vaganti objectification. It’s Jake Gyllenhaal’s
Photography
I

Carmine Recano
Hathaway, Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria
ErmannoSpera
MaunzioCalvesi
I
body the camera lingers over,
Make-up Marco I

presenting a parade of Jamie’s bronzed

I i

Editor
Anna Maria Romoli Massimiliano Gallo I

Patrizk) Marone Cristina Amadio Salvatore. Elena's This selfconsciously sophisticated, thigh and buttock that make him look
I I j
Art Director
Key Hair Stylist husband acerbic but sentimental comedy-drama, more Playboy centrefold than playboy.
Andrea Crisanti Mirella Ginnoto Paola Minaccioni
which a womanising drug salesman
I

Music in |
Clothed, Gyllenhaal’s smirky, flirty
Hairstylists Teresa
Pasquale Catalano
i GiammarcoGaeta Gianluca De March! falls for a tough-talking Parkinson’s I performance fares little better,
i Arianna Ralmucci Davide sufferer, feels likean odd choice for i appearing a callow and less captivating
©Fandango Titles Mauro Bonaffini
Production
I
director Edward Zwick, best known I version of George Clooney’s corporate
I Chromatica Visual Massimiliano
Companies Effects Giorgio Marches!
for muscular action-with-issues j
charmer from Up in the Air. Here, his
I

Domenico Procacci Orchestrated/ Nicola movies such as Gloiy, Blood Diamond and romantic hero feels a tad manufactured,
I
j
presents a Fandango
I
Conducted by Matteol^nto Defiance. He’s got form with relationship I as did his Prince ofPersia action hero,
and Faros production in Pasquale Catalano Domenico
collaboration with Rai
I I
dramas, as TV series thirtysomething unlike his more nuanced dramatic
Giuseppe Sasso Gea Martire |

and his Mamet adaptation debut About Anne Hathaway, as the sarcastic,
I
Cinema Soundtrack Patnzia j
roles.
A film by Feran Ozpietek "50mila (Mine Vaganti
I

Daniele Peed Last Night... attest, but this sex-soaked teasing object of his affections, walks
j
I
In association with - Nina Zilli;
version)" i Andrea kinda-comedy, replete with uneasily away with the movie - and not just
Apulia Film Commission - Radiodervish 1

“Yara" Carolina Crescentini

Co-financed by FESR - featuring Alessialbndo: grandmother; as a
raunchy interludes - as when the |
because she manages to make the
I I

FondoEuropeodi "RensieroStupendo young woman lovers’ home-made sex video is used shaky-hand symptoms of stage-one
i i
I

Sviluppo Regionale
I
(Live)”"Sogno" - Patty Elena Sofia Ricci as a masturbation aid by the hero’s Parkinson’s poignant rather than
Ente Regione Puglia
Pravo: ‘Ancora Ancora Luciana Cantone. aunt
brother - doesn’t seem his speed. showy Oscar-bait. Her Maggie deftly
i
I

Line Producer
Ancora"; "La Giancarlo Monticelli \

Gianluca Leurini
I

I
cumparsita” "The Way
: Raffaele Brunetti What’s oddest of all is that Zwick’s [
layers fear, caustic humour and
Production Manager I WeWbre’VSorryl'ma Crescenza Guamieri films are invariably thoughtful and prickly self-defence, and the scene
Roberto Leone Lady" - Baccara: "Una Antonietta
Production Supervisor
I I well made, in a traditional and crafted inwhich she shrilly breaks up with
notte a Napoli" - Pink Emanuela Gabrieli |

Claudio Zampetti
I Martini; "Kutlama” - Giovanna
sense, and this uneasy mix of Big Jamie because “You’re not a good
I
Production Pharma insider tales and disease-of-the- person because you pity-fuck the
Sezen Aksu Joselito Gargasole
Co-ordinator Music Consultant
Giorgia Passarelli
I
waiter week romance simply isn’t. I sick girl” is the movie’s one really
Lula Sarchioni Ibto Costantini
Financial Controller
I
Zwick, fascinated by the ruthlessness I effective moment.
Sound Recordist I
pastry chef
Antonio Altea
Marco Grilb Giampaolo Morelli of pharmaceutical selling, aims a few It’s a shame this blithely genre-
I

Location Manager Sound Mixer I

Mancini darts at US healthcare (heroine Maggie hopping film can’t find its feet, to let
Andrea Coppola Roberto Moroni Guido
Patrizia Carla
Post-production
I
learns about patient power, and buses I the narrative match her performance.
Sound Editors employee
dry-cleaner's
Supervisor Sandro Peticca
I

I
Monica Vferzolini
I I
Assistant Director
I
Gianluca Mazzella
Script Supervisor
I
Cosimo Ibmaiuolo impoverished OAPs to Canada for cheap Swinging between glossy satire of Big
Giuseppe DAmato marketing executive meds). But the film’s obligation to open Pharma’s ruthless retailing and an
|
Francesco Vallocchia Ermanno Spera out and fictionalise former salesman increasingly glutinous love story, it
Stunt Co-ordinator nurse
I
Jamie Reidy’s expose of a 1990s drug descends to a wannabe Jerry
finally
Angeto Ragusa Barbara De Matteis j

Laura Curreli
pastry chef rep’s tricks. Hard Sell: The Evolution of Maguire moment, when Jamie flags
\
Casting
CAST Claudio Cozzolino a Viagra Salesman, means that it trades down Maggie’s coach to declare his
Pirx) Pellegnno 1
Loredana Limblici
Camera Operator/ Riccardo Scamarcio
heavily and comically on the hero’s love on a motorway lay-by, in a scene
friends
Steadicam Operator TbmmasoCantone
I

Ludovica Centonze
education as a drug rep, as he dumps |
so predictable that it doesn’t have you
I

Luigi Andrei Nicole Grimaudo Aurora Persano his rival’s samples off practice shelves \
at hello or any point thereafter. The
Alba Brunetti
I
Elena’s daughters and seduces doctors and practice nurses \
movie may be about Viagra but its
both figuratively and literally. |
final act is decidedly limp.
Sex quickly emerges as the film’s I Kate Stables
unifying theme, as Jamie and the Credits for this film were unavailable
equally commitment-phobic Maggie’s j
at the time of going to press and will
hot but initially casual couplings be published in the February issue
show them both using sex as an |

anaesthetic against emotion, in a |

reversal of romantic comedy norms.

Elsewhere in the film, sex is the key \

to business (Jamie sets up doctors with

girls, and is enriched by the rush for I

the Viagra he touts) yet also a hopeless

compulsion for his internet-pom-
addicted brother (Josh Gad), who is
wrecking his own marriage.
But why does Zwick, who with co-
writer Marshall Hershkowitz examined
sexual power relations in couples |

with acuity in thirtysomething, keep |

the film’s take on sex so sophomoric? |

Apatowian rueful raunch is periodically I

shoehomed into the plot, mostly by 1 Layers: Anne Hathaway

SYNOPSIS Ohio, 1996. Underachieving lothario Jamie trains as a pharmaceutical

salesman, learning to bribe and sweet-talk his way into doctors’ offices.
Masquerading as an intern, he meets acerbic Parkinson’s sufferer Maggie. They
begin a relationship based on casual sex, but her ex, rival rep Trey, warns him off.
Despite a shared reluctance to commit, Maggie and Jamie fall in love. Jamie starts
to sell the new erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, very successfully. After Jamie
is advised that staying with Maggie as her condition worsens is a mistake, they

tour the country consulting specialists. Maggie breaks up with Jamie, telling
him he is scared to love her without a cure.
Jamie lands the Chicago sales job he has coveted. Deciding he wants Maggie
more, he tracks her down and declares his love. He quits his job, applies to medical
school, and they move in together.
Rome, open city: Nicole Grimaudo, Riccardo Scamarcio

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 71
1
 Films
Don Mann kooren piano.
Jennifer Sanchez Movements I. II. V' by
Paris Crew: Antonin Dvorak; "Love
Maxime Brun over Healing"
Post-production Sound Designer
Co-ordinators Jan Willem van den
Arjan Eekels Brink
Marja Paeper Sound Recordist
Assistant Directors EddydeCloe
1st: Marc van derBijI Sound Mixer
2nd: Manette van Jan Willem van den
Sisseren Brink
Script Supervisor Sound Editors
Machteld Feltmann Tom Bijnen
Casting Gabor Verhoeven
Rebecca van Unen ReneOverhorst
Script Contributors Stunt Co-ordinator
Reinout CJerlemans Marco Maas
Kluun
LiesbethWiegers
Mischa Alexander
CAST
Camera Operators Carice van Houten
2nd Unit Carmen
Reinout Steenhuizen Barry Atsma
Rolf Dekens Stijn

Flip Bleekrode Anna Drijver

LueZonnenberg Roos
Steadicam Operators Jeroen Willems
Frangois Perrier Frenk
Michael Monteiro Sacha Bulthuis
Gaffers Doctor Scheltema
Mark Bakker Gijs Scholten van
2nd Unit: A^hat
Erwin Roodhart Doctor Jonkman
Key Grip Pierre Bokma
Jan Willem Biemans family doctor
Visual Effects Walid Benmbarek
Goeroe Fbst Ramon
Special Effects Yfke Wegman
Harry Wiessenhaan Luna aged 6
Ricky Wiessenhaan Isabelle Moerman
Edward Wiessenhaan Luna aged 3
Roland Goddijn Beppie Melissen
Nick van Leeuwen Carmen’s mother
Set Decorator Mark Scholten
Jantien Wijker Thomas
Costume Designers Wendell Jaspers
Marian Van Anne
Dutch courage: Carice van Houten Nieuwenhuyzen Eva Smid
Marion Boot Maud
Production Managers Make-up/Hair Steef Cuijpers
I as Stijn wisely lets his designer stubble with Inspire Pictures

Love Life ;
do most of the talking and copes
admirably with spending much of
In collaboration with
RTL Entertainment
Jorisvan Seggelen
California Crew:
Gerda Koekoek
Special
Effects
Make-up
taxi driver

Dirk Zeelenberg
estate agent
i

With the support of EricTu

the film slumped in dark, shadowy Rob Hillenbrink Hilke Bierman
The Netherlands/ i
Suppletieregelingvan Tahiti/Le Taha’a Crew:
Jeanine
het Nedeiiands Fonds Christine Tisseau Erik Hillenbrink
United Kingdom 2009 comers looking distraught.
i

voor de Film. Nationale Giraudel Title Sequence Fleur Vosse

The problem is that Oerlemans Goeroe Fbst dancer in dream
Director: Reinout Oerlemans Postcode Loterij, Inspire Paris Crew:
never really delves any deeper than Pictures. Eyeworks Xavier Legns Music Arranger David Lucieer
With Carice van Houten, Barry he has to. The couple’s whirlvnnd Holding Production Peter SchOn doctor’s assistant

Atsma, Anna Drijver, Jeroen Willems romance is straight out of Stijn’s Executive Producers Co-ordinators Soundtrack Anne Marie Michels
Bert Nijdam Lotte Gerding "Start It Up" - Robben Esther
portfolio, the whispers and lingering Ronald van Weehem California Crew: Ford; "Rain down on Viviane Windgassen
Dutch director Reinout Oerlemans’s glances resembling a perfume ad. Roos, Co-executive Ash Marshall Me" - Tiesto featuring Carol

Producers Production Kane; "In de

debut feature broke box-office records the object of Stijn’s affections, is just
Clea de Konirig Accountants maneschijn"; "You See Dolt^ Digital
when it was released recently in that and nothing else. Meanwhile the
Danielle Guirguis Shekhar Kewalbansing the Trouble with Me" - In Colour

the Netherlands. A tale of the couple’s young daughter Luna is totally Co-producer Sabine Schluter Black Legend; "Sehor. la [235:1]

destruction wrought on a relationship : ignored until she’s needed to turn on Simvan\feen Arie Bos cuenta. por favor!" - De Subtitles

Line Producers Location Managers 5 Fluitjes; “Satisfaction"

by terminal illness, it’s many things ; the waterworks in the soggy finale. - Benny Benassi Distributor
Erwin Godschalk Dick Engelbracht
- a psychologically barren soap opera The main offender, though, is the California Crew LA; Central Amsterdam: presents The Biz'; Yeltow Knife Releasing

and a stylistic bore among them. But I

blaring soundtrack. Close your eyes Patricia McMahon Robert Post "Stabat Mater, versie
1876 voor soloisten.
for a mainstream film on such a subject, ; and you’d still know what’s happening: j
California Crew:

it does deviate slightly from the normal i

when everything’s
there’s a bit of jazz
tear-duct squeezing formula. ;
tickety-boo, a melancholic piano when SYNOPSIS Amsterdam, the present. Ad executive and serial womaniser Stijn
“Love in times of cancer has its i
it’s not. Hear some thumping beats and falls in love with co-worker Carmen. After a whirlwind romance, they marry.
own rules,” confides thirtysomething j
you know Stijn’s getting homy. Indeed, Carmen discovers that Stijn has been unfaithful. He professes that she is the only
ad executive Stijn as he embarks on yet I Oerlemans’s camera spends far too long woman he loves and so she tolerates his infidelities. They have a daughter, Luna,
another affair, unbeknown to his dying spying on Roos and Stijn’s bedroom and move to the suburbs. Stijn sets up his own ad agency with his friend Frenk.
wife Carmen. Based on the bestselling antics. The realities of cancer are all
Carmen is diagnosed with breast cancer. Stijn looks after her while she receives
autobiographical novel by Raymond there - the bums, bile and hair loss, chemotherapy and radiation treatment and eventually has her breast removed.
van de Klundert, Love Life sends the but love itself doesn’t get much of a The couple drift apart. Stijn starts a relationship with artist Roos. Carmen is given
audience’s moral compass spinning look in. Isabel Stevens the all-clear by the doctors; she starts to suspect that Stijn is seeing someone else
with its suggestion that when the and asks him to stop. Stijn confesses to Frenk that he is unsure whether he still
pressures of nursing a loved one CREDITS Editor
loves Carmen. Frenk urges him to break up with Roos and he does so. Carmen
Michiel Reichwein
become too much, infidelity can Director and Stijn go on holiday to try to fix their relationship. Carmen discovers that
Production Designer
provide a necessary sanctuary. Reinout Oerlemans Harry Ammerlaan Roos is still contacting Stijn; when she asks Stijn if he still loves her, he is unable
Producers
To his credit, Oerlemans never Music
to answer. She demands a divorce. However, after getting drunk together later,
HansdeWeers Chrisnanne Wiegel
sides with either character. Narrated by Reinout Oerlemans they make up and he agrees never to see Roos again.
MelcherMeirmans
and he is largely
Stijn, this is his story, Screenplay Merlijn Snitker On their return, they discover that Carmen’s cancer has spread and she has six
an unsympathetic love rat throughout. Gert Embrechts
Based on the novel
months to live. They both give up their jobs and decide to enjoy the time they have
But while we might not condone his ©Eyeworks Film & TV
Komteen Vrouwbijde left together. As Carmen’s health deteriorates, Stijn finds it hard to cope and starts
Drama B.V.
actions, we do understand them. Strong Dokter [A Woman Goes seeing Roos again. Carmen finds out, and both she and Luna are angry with him.
Production
performances disguise a lot of the film’s to the Doctor] by
Companies After breaking down and crashing his car, Stijn commits himself to caring for
flaws, especially Carice van Houten’s
Kluun [i.e. Raymond van Goldaest Films
de Klundert] Carmen. As her condition worsens, she decides (legally) to terminate her life.
presents a film by
turn as Carmen, whose feelings and Director of Stijn invites Roos to Carmen’s funeral. Stijn and Luna travel abroad, opening
Eyeworks Film & TV
motivations aren’t given much Photography Drama in co-operation the box of items Carmen has collected for Lima.
screentime. Meanwhile Barry Atsma Lennert Hillege

72 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
 BIliECTOIIYOf

WORLD
CINEMA

D RECTORYOF

WORLD
CINEMA

DIRECTORY OF
WORLD CINEMA: RUSSIA
Be they musicals or melodramas, war movies or animation,
Russian films have a long and fascinating history of addressing

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Eisenstein's anti-tsarist drama. Battleship Potemkin, to socialist

realism, to the post-glasnost thematic explosion, this volume

explores the socio-political impact of the cinema of Russia and

the former Soviet Union. Introductory essays establish key players

and situate important genres within their cultural and industrial

milieus, while reviews and case studies analyze individual titles in

considerable depth. For the film studies scholar, or for all those

who love Russian cinema and want to learn more. Directory of

World Cinema: Russia is an essential companion.

Visit the website to find out more about Intellect's

Directory project and explore the volume for free

WWW.WORLDCINEMADIRECTORY.ORG
Directories for Japan, American Independent and Australia & New Zealand are
now available. Forthcoming volumes include Italy, Iran and American Hollywood.
 Films
of the Bush generation. It’s a big ask. Casting Supervisor Martin Delos Santos

Mammoth If that ambition bangs

compassion fatigue - and questions
up against Philippine Crew:
Julie Isla
Gaffers
Manuel
Maria Del Carmen
grandmother
Sweden/Denmark/ about the film’s equal dispensation Jacob Marlow Perry Dizon
of sympathy for the ‘suffering’ Thailand Crew; Fernando
Germany/Norway 2009 Chesda Smithsuth Dona Croll
Third World and the ‘guilty’ First - ‘Pop’
Director: Lucas Moodysson Philippine Crew; Alice
Moodysson’s strategies make it worse. Gerry Dano Joseph Mydell
With Gael Garcia Bernal, The continual crosscutting between Key Grip Ben Jackson
Michelle Williams, Marife Necesito Philippine Crew; Caesar Kobb
three (necessarily sketchy) stories
Butch Abrillo Anlhioriy
Certificate 15 125m 25s tends to preclude identification with Visual Effects Matthew James Ryder
the characters in any of them. At the Filmgate Bob Sanders’ colleague
Lukas Moodysson has gone global. same time, not only is the focus lost Art Director Piromya Sootrak
Thailand Crew; Cteokte's daughter
Banished is the formal experimentation but so is Moodysson has
the intensity. If
‘Som’ Aussom Pasakom Mahakanok
of his last movie Container, and the hitherto been a master director of rooms Musikbutr Pbm
feelbad element of its predecessor, - those confined social cmcibles where Set Decorators Thanita Nitna-Na-Nan

the outre provocation of A Hole in My people ferment their relationships or Thailand Crew: Pirn
Rasant Phepong Ian Stevens
Heart, has been tempered. Mammoth, experiment with their identities - then NYCrew; guyl
his first English-language star-cast here, where he seems to want to throw Jade Healy Rune Kippervik
project, applies a passive traveller’s eye the doors and windows wide open to Props Master guy 2
Thailand Crew: Peter Tuinstra
and flies us off in several directions at gaze on our little blue planet in the
Somchaj Chinsirikul guy 3
once: from the swish Manhattan nest round (literally so when Jackie, the Williams, Bernal, Nyweide Construction Pennapa Udomsin
of the Vidales family to the bloody, Vidales’ daughter, visits the Hayden Managers massage woman
Thailand Crew: Ofelia B. Ruivivar
socialwake-up call of a metropolitan Planetarium), he is far less comfortable. and Denmark’s Zentropa wasn’t
Jeed' Prasan saleswoman
sari sari
ER room; to the poverty and economic In addition, his English scripting leads wasted, turning out quite an expensive- Petchpong Attakom Kauchat
injustice of the abandoned Manila tosome infelicities in the dialogue: looking movie on a $10 million budget. Trollhattan Crew: van driver
family of the Vidales’ Filipino nanny young Jackie peering through elevator A film of only occasional moment, it KlasJansson Winaj Kasikdon
Costume Designer
doors - “I can’t see anything. Only
taxi driver
Gloria (the superb Marife Necesito); must be accounted a misfire, but an
Denise Ostholm Khomsak Yala
and the sexual exploitation and darkness!” - seems overly portentous, honourable one. Wally Hammond Wardrobe Set man in bar
polluted air of Thailand’s capital and while much of the halted conversation Supervisor Shatshaj Yala
Eleonor Fahlen bearded man
itsseemingly paradisiacal islands. between Leo and pretty prostitute CREDITS Co-producers
Peter Aalbaek Jensen Make-up/Hair Sama-Ann Kasikdon
What Moodysson’s aim in Mammoth Cookie (Run Srinikornchot) can feel Directed hy Designer bungalow man
Maria Kopf
seems to be is to find a way to illustrate either patronising or cliched. Likewise, Lukas MocxJysson GunnarCarlsson Linda Boije af Gennas Sunaa
both global human connectedness and the golden washes or chromatic sheens Produced by Tomas Eskilsson Special Eff^s beach salesman
LarsJonsson Make-up Nigel Rogers
its ironic corollary - how geographic, with which cinematographer Marcel
Written by
Line Producer
Trollhattan Crew: Western man
Malte Forssell
social and economic inequalities and Zyskind imbues the Thai seascapes Lukas Moodysson Love Larson Raul Morit
Production Managers
injustices affect individual interactions or ritzy hotelrooms introduces a Director of
Madeleine Ekman Main/End Credits man finding Salvador
Photography Fellow Designers Greg Schroeder
and personal relationships within and sense of sentimentality and seduction Philippine Crew;
Marcel Zyskind Awel Galang Paul Kuhihorn man at square
across those divides, as seen primarily at strange odds with the film’s nim Editor Eva Liljefors Tirso Sotelo
Production
from the microscopic view of the ostensible ethical purposes. Michal Leszczylowski
Supervisors Music Supervisor fisherman
individual family but also from the That said. Mammoths patent Production Designer Anita Tester Rasmus Thord Mark) Sumagui
Josef in Asberg Soundtrack priest
more macroscopic perspective afforded sincerity, emotional honesty and
Composers
Thailand Crew:
Pam Ptodripu BeatusVirC)p.38"by Julie Ysla
by global travel. What we get is a inherent campaigning zeal give it JesperKurlandsky NY Crew; Henryk Gorecki - Nikita neighbour
socially conscious movie masquerading much compensatory appeal. Also, Erik Holmquist Izabela Muchlinski Storojev Choir. Prague Drew Ernst
Linus Gierta Philharmonic Oioir, client in shop
as a family melodrama, a would-be Moodysson’s sympathetic direction Production
Co-ordinators Czech Philharmonic Marilyn Cea
Rebel without a Cause that tries to gamer of actors, not least of children, results in ©Memfis Film Rights 6 Orchestra; "The woman behind bar
Manuela Rossing
sympathy not for Eisenhower’s angry, some moving, if discreet, performances. AB, Zentropa Thailand Crew; Greatest" - Cat Pbwer; Michelle Collins

alienated 1950s youth but rather - He probes interestingly at the EntertainmentsS ApS.
'Onn' Sathanee "International Dateline', Sarah Marlow
Zentropa Kladkaew "Destroy Everything You Mehmosh Sharivar
as presented in the privileged figures vulnerability and depth yet to be Entertainments Berlin Philippine Crew; Touch" "Versus" - Rajfa Duzic
of fashionable, well-intentioned fully expressed by Michelle Williams GmbH Ladytron: "Boga". nurses
Tess Mann
website designer Leo Vidales (Gabriel - squirming in her bed alone; he finds Production Philippine Crew On-set: "Sogg” "Lupina" - David Hagman
Companies Amiina; "House of Thomas Forsberg
Garcia Bernal) and his progressive a qualifying streak of cruelty and Marty Mase
Memfis Rim presents Trollhattan Crew; Cards" - Radiohead; Bryan Glinski
but highly paid surgeon wife Ellen offhand callousness in Bernal; and Produced by Memfis "Motherless Child" Anita Sihiberg
Patric Hjelm
(Michelle Williams) - the guilt, with Necesito he helps nurture a fine Film Rights 6 AB in co-
SaraWaldeck BoneyM; "OnlyU"- paramedics
dissatisfaction and disconnectedness He shows,
portrait of mute self-denial. production with Ashanti; "Seventh Maurice Herbert
Accountants
Zentropa PiaJanols Heaven"; "Urban Raw" Zana Penjweni
of the most putatively successful parsimonious background
too, that his
Entertainments5 ApS. SourKl Designer Elmira Arikan
Sabina Osterling
and upwardly mobile high achievers in productions with Sweden’s Memfis Zentropa Hans Moller Blanche Ona
AnnaWaden
Entertainments Berlin Souixf Recording trauma team
Ida Jensen
GmbH Filmekonomi AB Henric Andersson Tony Wedgwood
SYNOPSIS workaholic ER surgeon, and Leo, a rich website games
Ellen, a Also in co-pnoduction Niclas Merits speaker
Location Managers
developer, live in a well-appointed New York apartment with their bright seven- with Film Vast. Sveriges
i

Thailand Crew; Re-recording Mixers

year-old daughter Jackie and her Filipino nanny Gloria. Leo leaves for Thailand Tele\/ision(SVT).TV2
‘Lek’ Nitad Srisomsap
Holger Lehmann Doby Digital
Denmark Philippine Crew; Hans Moller In Colour
with colleague Robert, hoping to sign a multimillion-dollar contract; delays Supported by Swedish Technical Adviser [Z35:l]
Chriz Soriano
lead to a protracted stay overseas. Ellen suffers from insomnia, a reaction to Film Institute (Peter Trollhattan Crew: Part-subtitled
NY Crew;
her stressful job, which has led to many of her maternal duties being left to Piodor' Gustavsson).
SukYi Mar Rutger Andersson
Eunmages. Nordic Film Medical Advisers Distributor
her surrogate Gloria, towards whom she develops a resentful jealousy. Gloria Head of
&TV Fund (Hanna Post-production Trollhattan Crew: Soda Pictures
takes Jackie to the Hayden Planetarium and starts teaching the child her native Palmquist). Mehmosh Sharivar
Peter Bengtsson
Tagalog language. Gloria receives repeated calls from the Philippines from Medienboard Berlin- Assistant Directors Sarah Marlow 11,287 ft +4 frames
her own child, lo-year-old Badong, expressing how much he and his younger Brandenburg GmbH. Chief; Malin Fomander NYCrew;
Filmforderungsanstalt,
James Velasquez Dr Lorraine Cashin Swedish/Danish/
brother miss her, and appealing for her to come home. Badong shows his brother Danish Film
1st:
Institute
Thailand Crew Dr Melvin E. Stone Jr German/Norwegian
the house, half-completed, that his mother is attempting to fund. Badong makes (Lena Hansson- theatrical title
1st;Kong 'Kcinuaka
repeated unsuccessful attempts to find paid work. MEDIA
Varhegyi).
Philippine Crew CAST Mammut
Programme of the 2nd; Andy And ico
Leo, grown impatient and alienated waiting in his five-star hotel, takes a trip
European (Community Gael Garcia Bernal
Trollhaftan Crew
to an island beach hut, where he poses as a drop-out ex-firefighter and meets Production Service Leo Vidales
2nd; Abbe Hassan
prostitute Cookie. Ellen becomes unprofessionally attached to a seriously iU Companies: Memfis 2nd; Hanne Lassgflrd
Michelle Williams
Filmproduktion AB. Ellen Vidales
young patient, Anthony. Badong’s grandmother takes him on a cautionary visit NYCrew
Zentropa Marife Necesito
2nd: Steve Litwitz
to see scavengers on the local refuse dumps; in telling him indirectly about the nanny
Gloria,
EntertainmentsZ ApS. Continuity
work of child prostitutes, she inadvertently gives the boy ideas. Leo finally sleeps Santa International Rim Malin Fomander
Sophie Nyweide
with Cookie but returns soon afterwards to Bangkok. Badong is mugged by child Productions Co Ltd. R.S. Jackie Vidales
Lidija Aleksandrov
Video & Film Run Srinikornchot
prostitutes in the city centre; he is led away by an American tourist and later found Casting
Productions Cookie
Avy Kaufman
seriously injured. Gloria flies home immediately, telling her hospitalised son she Executive Producers Tom McCarthy
Europe/Asia:
will stay for good. Anthony dies in surgery, causing Ellen to break down. Lene Borglum JesperKurlandsky
Robert ‘Bob' Sanders
Pfeter Garde Jan Nicdao
Leo flies home. Reunited with his family, he declares a moment of perfect Thailand Crew -
Vibeke Windelov Salvador
happiness. Bangkok;
Jirati Chaiyasang

74 Sight & Sound January 2011

1 |
 alliterative Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey).
Megamind The hero, villain and ‘distressed’ damsel
have plainly been going through their
Director: Tom McGrath motions forever, leading to a mildly
whose visuals are infinitely more
Miral eloquent than its writing. The rapid
changes of story and character have
France/Israel/Italy/India 2010 |
the effect of disengaging the viewer,

Vbices of Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt,

Tina Fey, Jonah Hill
Certificate PG 95m 32s
A superhero parody, DreamWorks’
computer-animated Megamind operates
in such an overworked genre that it
has to become a joke about being the
umpteenth iteration of the superhero
story. Surprisingly, it makes a fairly
decent joke of it. One inspiration
seems to be a series of Chuck [ones
cartoons made between 1953 and
1963, in which a sheepdog and wolf
engaged in various crazy battles (the
wolf always lost). However, we also
saw them exchange courtesies as
they punched their timecards at the
beginning and end of each day. The
meta-joke, of course, was that their
whole story raison d’etre was to fight, as
much as it is for Batman and the Joker,
or for Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty.
Megamind proposes that the very
worst situation for a supervillain is
if he wins the game. The first act retells
the Superman story; in this version,
Superman is a smug poseur called
amusing routine where Megamind
desperately tries scaring the blase
Roxanne with increasingly ridiculous
devices. Metro Man comes to save
the day... and Megamind accidentally
kills him, shocking the villain more
than anyone else.
Consequently, Megamind must
become a one-man show, playing
every role himself. Thus he disguises
himself as a Clark Kent character to woo
Roxanne, falling for her (and having
one point for her
to fight ‘himself’ at
benefit). Then he must become father
and when that
to a ‘new’ superhero,
goes wrong, he must finally play Metro
Man. Of course, none of this is new.
For example, it’s a cliche in Sherlock
Holmes fan circles that Moriarty
could be the jaded sleuth in disguise.
Megamind is essentially an in-joke,
|
whereas superhero animation
Pixar’s
The Incredibles (2004) succeeded because
its starter question - what if society
didn’t want Superman or his powers?
- resonated beyond the genre into
middle-aged angst. The saving grace of
|
the amiably amusing Megamind- apart,
that is, from the nimble dynamism
Director: Julian Schnabel I
and the excellent Hiam Abbass can
make little more of Hind than a rapidly
With Hiam Abbass, Freida Pinto,
j
ageing saint, a woman who, like Mr
V^smine Al Massri, Ruba Blal
Chips, “never married. But I have 2,000
Certificate 12A 112m 24s | daughters.” Even when it settles to tell
I
:
Miral’s story at comparative length,
Miral an earnest, episodic melodrama Freida Pinto’s uncomplicatedly plucky
about four Arab-Israeli women whose i schoolgirl, radicalised by the Ramallah
lives are affected by the momentous bulldozers and by boyfriend Hani,
political upheavals beginning in I doesn’t reach out and grab us. Put this
Palestine in shows artist-turned-
1 948, I down to a combination of the film’s
filmmaker Julian Schnabel making i relentlessly agitprop dialogue (“Settlers
a decisive move away from his j are the real cancer”) and Pinto being
established auteurist template. He |
primarily a reactive actress, whose gift
is famous for intense dramatised for eloquent suffering only comes into
memoirs of beleaguered and egotistical ;
its own when Miral is beaten in prison
artists, from Basquiafs art-world satire for PLO activism.
through the controversial character I Though he goes at it with typical
study of Before Night Falls and - his I grandiosity, Schnabel’s attempt to
crowning achievement - the elegant, I mesh the personal and the political
funny, tragic interior world he created I in this movie sends it skating across
for Tlte Diving Bell and the Butterfly, |
the region’s history, never digging
which showed him harnessing his into the issues it throws out. It winds
visual panache to great empathetic up reducing Miral’s politicisation
effect His creative palette is a far I to a manufactured choice between
more problematic fit for this history- {
ideology and humanity, and itself to
is-herstory adaptation of Palestinian ahandsomely mounted tract with soap-
journalist Rula Jebreal’s memoir, I opera trimmings. Kate Stables
which tags a fictionalised version I

Metro Man, voiced by Brad Pitt, who that 3D animation lends to its tower- of her own radical youth as ‘Miral’ |
CREDITS Unit Production
Managers
follows tradition by escaping a dying leaping flights and fights - turns out on to the end of a chain of women 1 Directed by
Saar Datner
alien world as a baby. One change to to be Megamind himself. When he’s struggling fruitfully or self-destructively |
Julian Schnabel Ramallah Crew;
the story is that the villain Megamind not cackling and grandstanding, the with what history has dealt them. Produced by i
JonKilik
JonKilik
(Will Ferrell) is now an alien as well, DreamWorks animators do a fine job But the exuberant acuity that | Screenplay
Production
Co-ordinators
with bright-blue skin. However, he of making the big-headed freak seem Schnabel brought to portraying gay I (Rula Jebreal
Dorit Perel
I

still has the huge dome-forehead of plaintively human, in a way they persecution under Castro, or locked- |
Based on the novel by
I French Crew;
Rula Jebreal
Superman’s human foe Lex Luthor (J.J. never quite managed with Shrek. •
in syndrome, is somehow absent here, I
Maria Uzelac
Director of
•0^ Andrew Osmond Budget Controllers
Abrams once proposed making Luthor and the film opts for a visually and Photography i
|
I
Hadara Czaezkes
an alien, drawing howls from fans.) |
Credits for this film were unavailable emotionally lush but simplistic take Eric Gautier
I French Crew;
Film Editor
Megamind kidnaps the Lois Lane at the time of going to press and will on a complex political problem. Not 1
I Laure Blaess
Juliette Welf ling
heroine, renamed as the equally be published in the February issue to say that the Arab-Israeli conflict Location Managers
| Production Designer
GuyRaz
can’t be tackled with great creativity on Yoel Herzberg
I

Ramallah Crew;
I

film (Eli Suleiman’s quirkily absurdist Songs Morad Ismael

I
Laune Anderson
2009 black comedy The Time That i
I FVsst-production
Marcel Khalife Supervisors
Remains covers similar territory with A.R. Rahman
I Virginia Anderson
breathtaking audacity) but Schnabel TrioJoubran I NY
seems significantly less at home with Tom Waits Luca Borghese
\ j
EnnioMorricone Assistant Directors
this kind of material. He is saddled
1st; Sebastian Silva
with Jebreal’s cumbersome narrative,
I
I ©Pathe Production, ER 2nd; Li-At Heller
I

whose exposition-heavy initial |

Productions. Eagle
i
2nd; Enas Al-Muthaffar
Pictures. India Take One
account of young philanthropist |
I 2nd; Joaquin Silva
Productions
Beard
Hind Husseini’s 1948 establishment Production
I

I
2nd; Maxim Konoplov
of a school for Palestinian orphan girls \
Companies Script Supervisor
jerks awkwardly into two other lightly J6r6me Seydoux Georgina Asfour
| I
presents a Pathe. ER Casting
connected stories without warning. Productions. Eagle
I

Israel;
Indeed, a detour into the terrorist I Pictures. India Take One
I

I
Vbel Aviv
activities of Fatima, Miral’s terrorist Productions co- I Najwa Mubarki
production
aunt, seems included expressly to I
French Crew;
With the participation of
Gerard Moul6vrier
make her attempted
allow Schnabel to Canal-r & CineCinema
I

Underwater
cinema bombing a homage to The Battle A Jon Kilik production I

Cameraman
Hero or villain?: ‘Megamind’ A film Julian
ofAlgiers. I
(Roland Savoye
Schnabel Camera Operator
Still, Schnabel’s collagey visual |
Grandview Pictures B; Haim Asias
style attempts to pull these strands
I

SYNOPSIS Two babies escape a cosmic cataclysm, both landing on Earth. One Production Services
I
Gaffer
together, using his canted or restless Eran Riklis Productions Avi Dasberg
is hugely popular; the other, a blue-skinned, big-headed genius, is always the I

Ramallah Crew;
camera and solarised colours to unify Key Grip
outsider. They grow up, respectively, into the superhero Metro Man and the I
Modem Media F?oy Mano
supervillain Megamind, fighting to dominate Metro City. Metro Man always wins, them in a stream of choppy scenes. Company
I

Visual Effects
until one day Megamind traps him in a dome that happens to be lined with copper. This works strikingly well when the j
Executive Producers i

Duran Duba
I
Frangois-Xavier
Metro Man claims that copper is his secret weakness, before being (apparently) film encapsulates the short, miserable Special Effects
Decraene Pini Klavir
life of Miral’s mother Nadia as a
destroyed. Megamind is victorious over Metro City, but quickly grows bored. He |
Sonia Raule
I

Art Director
WOOS reporter Roxanne Ritchi in disguise; she gives him the idea of creating a new whirlwind of snapshot sequences, |
Co-producers NirAlba
I

pulling together the bedsprings of her Sebastian Silva FVoperty Master

hero. He creates a serum from Metro Man’s DNA, which is accidentally injected j

Tarak Ben Ammar

into Hal, Roxanne’s nerdish colleague. Not knowing that Hal desires Roxanne, childhood rape, the jiggling amber j 'ibav Dahan
|
Tabrez Noorani
Construction Manager
Megamind trains him as a hero. Both Megamind and Hal (now called Tighten) stomach of her bellydancing and the Line Producers
I

I
Amiram Lichter
reveal their identities to Roxanne, who rejects them both. Megamind is appalled slooping bright-blue waters of her j
Uzi Karin
Costume Designer
drowning with an intensity that recalls Eyal Sadan Walid Mawed
when Tighten says he’d rather be a villain. Megamind and Roxanne must team up |
Associate Producer
the first-person POV of The Diving Bell Costume Supervisor
(learning along theway that Metro Man faked his death after tiring of the endless |
Hammoudi Buqai LiAlembik
battles with Megamind). Megamind fights Tighten himself, draining his powers.
and the Butterfly. But her character is |
Make-up Design
little more than a gorgeous mist of
Roxanne and the public embrace Megamind as a superhero. Ziv Katanov

misery, a problem that besets the film.

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 75 1
 Films

Monsters
United Kingdom 2010
Director: Gareth Edwards
With Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able
Certificate 12A 93m 40s

Monsters is our Film of the Month and

is reviewed on p56.

CREDITS Location Managers

Costa Rica;
Directed by
Hugo Roque
Gareth Edwards USA;
Produced ty Jose Hernandez
Allan Niblo
Post-production
James Richardson Supervisor
Written by
Rebekka Garrido
Gareth Edwards Script Editor
Director of
Toby Rushton
Photography Visual Effects
Gareth Edwards
Gareth Edwards
Editor
Associate Editor
ColinGoudie Anne Goudie
Production Designer
End Credits
Gareth Edwards Florian Obrecht
Music Music Supervisor
Jon Hopkins Lol Hammond
Soundtrack
©Vfertigo Slate
ElCascabel"-
Production Company Conjuntos TIalixcoyan y
Vertigo Films presents a
Medellin; "Mi Amor”.
Gareth Edwards film
"Muchos Mescal”
Executive Producers
"Letter from Mexico".
Nigel Williams
“Business in Mexico" -
War bal^: Freida Pinto, Omar Metwally Nick Love
Eva Abraham. Andy
Rupert Preston "Amba
Waterworth:
Line Producer
Make-up Artists Laurie Anderson. Lou Vanessa Redgrave Fatma El-Akel Pini Mittelman Doraid Liddawi "Ramon
Tequilla”,
Jim SfDencer Ramerez" - Eva
Shiran Yamen Reed; "So Sad about Bertha Spafford DeirVcissin little girl Fatima’s judge Samir
Unit Production
Carmit Bouzaglo Us"; "Carol's Walk"; Asma Al Shiukhy Mahmoud Abu Jazi Sanaa Ali Sharon Alexander Abraham. Andy
Manager Waterworth, trumpet by
MeiravHorovitz "Taqasim” - Marcel Neemeh Khalil teacher Mustafa Hawwa Lisa’s father
Costa Rica: Lloyd Perrin
Bouchoucha Khalife (oud); "Rollin’ women wrapping body Najwa Mubarki Hind Halabi Firas Abo Alnor
Victor Barriga
Ramallah Crew; Tumblin’ (Remix)" - R.L Jameel Khoury teacher Nawal Jamal's mother soldier at check point Sound Designer
Production Manager
Jomana Farson Burnside; "Down There Brother Amin Amjad Barakat Saeed Gazzawi Frangois Abou Salem- Jurgen Funk
Oswin
Verity
Sound Recordist
Rasha Suleiman by the Train". "Lost in the Basel Husseini hotel director wedding sheik Gasper
Production
Hair Designers Harbour" - Tom Waits Brother Khalid Juliano Merr Khamis Ziad Bakri DNA doctor Ian MacLagan
Co-ordinator Re-recording Mixer
SigalitGrau Sound Recordist Harma Shammas Sheik Saabah Helmi Abed Zua'Bi
Alyson Pengelly
Almani Milad Mattar Yolanda El-Karam man at funeral Matthias Schwab
Eli Ashi Mib Ibrahim Husseini
Hairdresser Adam Wolny Hazem Said adviser young Miral Am it Bar-Am
RenatoLev Dominbue Gaborieau Husseini brothers Uri Avrahami Samar Qawasmi Ibrahim Firawi
Credits Sound Recordist Makram J. Khoury Israeli adoption officer little Leila Vrto Schnabel
Duran Duboi Ramallah Cre\w: Governor Khatib Fatma Yahia Sama Boullata secret police at hotel
Music Supervisor Lana Zreik
SYNOPSIS A NASA space probe
Yves-Marie Omnes Wadeea Khoury young Tamam little Hadil
Julian Schnabel Co-mixer Hind's mother Shmil Ben Ari Sama Abu-Khdair Sara carrying organisms from one of the
Soundtrack Damien Lazzerini Virginia Amsis stepfather little Rania Frangois-Xavier moons of Jupiter crashes in Central
"Pace apparente" from Stunt Co-ordinator young girl at Christmas Salwa Nakkara Hala Kurd Decr^ne America, infecting a large swathe of
La battaglia diAlgeri by Dima Osmobvsky party Nadia’s mother little Aziza French client
Ennio Morricone. Gilb Ansam (Jupti Rami Heuberger Rajaie Khateeb Jawhara Baker Mexico with huge alien creatures.
Film Extracts
Pontecorvo; "Rita" -
Repulsion (1965) other girl at Christmas belly dance club tourist guide Samar Hilal When magazine publisher’s
Marcel Khalife; "Flow". party customer Rana Al Qawasmi Anis Nacrour daughter Sam is injured in an
"Miral2”."Miral T"Miral FadiShahen DovNavon Leila Nina Burleigh
3" - Laurie Anderson; CAST RaedSaid Yossi Frida Elraheb American
journalists at
accident south of the Infected Zone,
"Water" from Water, Hiam Abbass Jamal Said Liron Levo Hadil colony her father instructs freelance
"Mumbai Theme Tune" Hind Husseini Mahmod Debh man on bus Mustaz Welteadi photographer Andrew to check that
from Mumbaih/ A.R. Freida Pinto musicians at Christmas Akta
Liat boy at refugee camp Dolby Digital
Sam is OK, then escort her to the
Rahman - A.R. Miral party performing "The woman on bus Mohammad Welteadi In Colour/Black and
Rahman; >fesmine Al Massri White nearest port to board a ferry back to
"Safar”. Doorof Jerusatem" Tsofit Shpan Rami, kid at class
"MasSr”-leTrio Nadia Huda Al Imam woman pnsoner OzZehavi :
[235:1] the US. Their train fails to get
Joubran. Yousef Ruba Blal governor’s wife Muraz Aljubeh soWier at refugee camp Part-subtitled through, but Andrew and Sam
Hbeisch (percussionist); Fatima Butros Copty Jordanian soldier Iman A’Oun
complete the journey to the port on
"Smoke Gets in Your Alexander Siddig older guest Adel Abou-Raya Hani’s mother Distributor
Eyes" - Dinah Jamal Jude Amous hospital officer Eaten Khoury Rath^ Distribution foot, hitchhiking and by bus,
Washington; "L Art Omar Metwally Zeina Anan Akawi school secretary arriving just in time to buy (for a
d'aimer-Shajan"-le Hani Abdallah El-Ackel Maher Adnan Tarabshi 10416 ft ^2 frames vastly inflated amount) a ticket on
Trio Joubran. Yousef Stella Schnabel Deir Yassin bey Uri Klauzner Hadil's uncle
Hbeisch (percussionist), Lisa Miral Hasna ticket man Rozeen Bisharat the final ferry out. They spend the
Mahmoud Darwich Willem Dafoe Deir^feissingirl Hai Maor Yasmin evening but not the night together.
(vocal); "Carbon" - Eddie Murad Shaheen soldier in cinema Shredy Jabarin Andrew subsequently goes out
Deir Vbssin crying child Ali
drinking, ending up with a local girl
Ashraf Farah
Ashraf who steals his documents, including
SYNOPSIS Young Hind Husseini founds a boarding school
Palestine 1948. Hanin Halabi Sam’s passport. Left with no
for Palestinian orphan girls in east Jerusalem, which she runs for 40 years. on bus
girl
alternative, the pair buy themselves a
RoyGurai
Raped by her father as a child, Nadia is imprisoned as a young woman after Doron Ben-David passage through the Infected Zone by
arguing with an Israeli on a Jerusalem bus. In prison she meets Fatima, a nurse soldiers on bus bartering Sam’s engagement ring.
politicisedby the Six Day War. Fatima attempts to bomb a Jerusalem cinema. She Zbhar Strauss They travel by boat, then with a
first
arresting policeman
marries Fatima’s brother but, unhappy and alcoholic, eventually drowns herself, group of heavily armed guerrillas,
Uri Gabriel
leaving a small daughter, Miral. interrogating officer until a monster attack leaves them to
Miral joins Hind’s school. As a teen teaching in a Ramallah refugee camp, she Ruth Cats fend for themselves. They make it
torture woman
is horrified by bulldozings during the Intifada. Rescued on a peace march by young over the protective wall between the
Ami Weinberg
PLO leader Hani, she dates him and is radicalised. Arrested by Israeli police seeking Miral’s judge
US and Mexico, only to find the Texas
Hani, she is beaten in custody. While exiled to Haifa she befriends her cousin’s YoavLevy Gulf Coast deserted. Narrowly
Jewish girlfriend Lisa. Back in Jerusalem, Hani is reviled as a traitor for seeing a Miral’s prosecutor escaping a further monster attack,
Munther Fahmi
two-state solution as viable. Before dying, Miral’s father reveals that she is not
Miral’s lawyer
Sam and Andrew finally admit their
his child. Miral decides to be a journalist after sneaking into the 1993 Oslo peace Rawda feelings for one another before being
talks. The dying Hind arranges a college scholarship to Italy for Miral. Tamam picked up by the US Army.

76 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
CAST Kenia Guadalupe

Scoot McNairy
Andrew Kaulder
DominluezYamas
little girl in

Jesus Jose Moreno

pick-up truck Of Gods SYNOPSIS
live in
Algeria, 1995. In a remote village, a group of French Cistercian monks
an atmosphere of peace and mutual respect with their Arab neighbours,
Whitney Able
Samantha 'Sam'
Quezada
boy playing soccer
and Men i
despite the fact that elsewhere the country is being terrorised by Islamic
fundamentalists. When Croatian Christian construction workers are slaughtered
Wynden Marta Maria Acatitia by a terrorist group, the government offers the monks military protection, but
Vasquez France 2010
featured extras
Brother Christian, the monks’ leader, rejects it. His failure to consult the other
com seller Director: Xavier Beauvois
I

Mark) Zuniga Romeo Arista brothers leads some of them to fear he may have condemned them to death.
Benavides whistle blower With Lambert Wilson, Shortly afterwards, local terrorists, led by Ali Fayattia, storm the monastery,
ticket seller
Maria Luisa Ontanon Michael Lonsdale, Olivier Rabourdin demanding that Brother Luc, a medic, accompany them. Christian refuses, adding
Annalee Jefferies Refugio Tapia Rendon
homeless woman Certificate 15 121m 56s moreover that the monks will not supply them with the medicines much needed
dead women in jungle
Justin Hall
Katerine Zuleika by the villagers. He invokes the Qu’ran in support of his position, and Fayattia,
Ricky Catter Guizar Tapia
“Do you know the Qu’ran?” An expected with begrudging respect, instructs his men to withdraw. The monks discuss the
Paul Archer
dead girls in jungle prospect of leaving the village but agree to bide their time. They ignore an order
Kerry Valderrema Joagun Salazan question perhaps in a film intimately
Jonathan Winnford policeman concerned with the impact of Islamist
from the Ministry of the Interior to leave the village, and when a severely injured
Stan Wong Anthony Jimenez Jara terrorist is brought to them, Luc treats him. Fayattia is captured and killed by the
Anthony Cristo terrorism in Algeria - but not one that
little boy riding bike at military; the governor is hostile to Christian and suspects him of complicity The
Mark) Richardson store
usually comes from the lips of a
Jorge Quirs Luis Roberto Monge Catholic monk, and certainly not
monks decide to stay. The terrorists ransack the monastery and take all but two of
Erick Arce
Brenes the monks hostage in order to bargain for the release of members of their group.
addressed to a terrorist leader with a
Emigo Munkel Oscar Mario Badilla
gun in his hand. An end title reveals that on 2 1 May 1996, all the hostages were killed.
Esteban Blanco Bora
marines Neston Herrera Lambert Wilson’s Brother Christian
Victor Vejan
men at bar cites a passage which says that the j
Amedee (Jacques Herlin). The brothers I
and one or two genuinely stomach-
Christopher Chararria Iserias Antouro Morah
Roman Bustamante Christian faith is “closest in love” to i have lived symbiotically with the local I clenching suspense scenes.
barman at harbour
Solamon Albarran Cooper Smith Islam - a statement with poignant I
Muslim community for decades, If Beauvois risks criticism by
Alejandro Sotero echoes given the current Ground Zero providing free medical treatment, placing the white Christian westerners
voice over for Tommy I I

Victorino Angulo
mosque controversy. For although it’s I
clothing and advice. They are warmly I at the centre of his film, consigning
David Alba Garcia Dolby Digital
Eduardo Guizak In Colour
the shadow of French, rather than I
invited to join in the villagers’ religious i
the villagers to the margins, the monks’
Alfonso Pineda
[235:1] American, imperialism that hangs I
celebrations, never seeking to convert, I
ideology doesn’t go untested. The local
Jose Garcia Gomez
over Of Gods and Men, Xavier Beauvois’s I
while for their part the locals observe i
governor points out that it’s their
guerrillas
Distributor
Erika Morales Yolanda
film (which is based on real events I
their own faith with joy and dignity, I economic and social privilege to choose
Vsrtigo Films
Chacon that took place in Tibhirine in 1996) 1 shaking their heads in horror at tales I to stay while the Arabs desperate to
nxtther, ‘Erika! Bocoyna 8,430 ft +0 frames addresses itself to many situations in of terrorist torture in the nearby town, flee cannot (a comment echoed by one
sa Rascon Gonzalez which fervid faith takes on destructive
I

When the danger arrives closer to

I

I elder’s observation that while women

grandmother. Bocoyna j

Jose Luis Morales proportions. As another monk notes I

home, the monks are far from I are being stabbed in Algeria for not
Chacon in the film, quoting Pascal, “Men never 1 unwavering in their faith in God or j
wearing the hijab, “mad” French girls
Tamilez Morales
do evil so completely and cheerfully I
their dedication to the community are rioting for their right to do so).
Chacon I

Jonathan Cadena as when they do it from religious I

yet their decision ultimately to stay Watching Of Gods and Men, one
Chacon conviction.” The film certainly echoes i
put is presented as an act of compassion I
can’t help but be overwhelmed by
Cindy Vanessa Cadena that sentiment: a graphic scene of and duty and one clearly appreciated its raw humanism, from the desolate
I
i
Morales
Croatian construction workers being I by the locals, who describe them as I
keening of a yoimg monk fearing
children of family.
Bocoyna enthusiastically slaughtered by Islamic I
“the branch upon which we perch”. I
himself abandoned by his God, to the
Javier Acosta extremists probes their gaping throats, I
The monks’ decision to remain, I scene in which the monks listen to
Rodriguez
sliced efficiently open, with gruesome j
refusing military protection, cues I
‘Swan Lake’, to the final heartbreaking
taxi driver

Victor Manuel detail. Yet this is far from a one-sided I

in the gentlest of thriller narratives I
shot, which doesn’t so much end as
Martinez Tovar portrait: for as the film makes clear, 1 as we wait to see if and when the I blow away on the breeze. In many ways,
boat skipper good as well as evil can be taken to I terrorists will strike. While Beauvois I
this is the film that Bruno Dumont
Walter Hernandez Col
extremes in the name of God. takes a lead from Philip Groning’s Into I tried, and failed, to make in Hadewijch
boat assistant j

Kenedy Gamaliel The remote Cistercian monastery I

Great Silence (2005) with his eloquent, I (2009). A small miracle of a film, it
Jimenez around which the narrative centres is I
often wordless contemplations of I
puts so much petty pedantry into
driver of pick-up truck to
home to a group of eight French monks, i the small details of monastic life, I humbling proportion, while offering
The Zone
Hugo Valuerde including leader Christian, medic Luc I
such scenes are interspersed with I a ^nuinely progressive vision of faith.
motorbike driver (Michael Lonsdale) and the ageing ! fast-paced, tightly framed montages I Catherine Wheatley
Roberto Saluzan
Cesan Solauo
ambulance guys
Arts Martinez
Claudia Valdez
nurses in maternity
ward
izabeth Blanco
Sanchez
main receptionist at
hospital
Gloria Soza
2nd receptionist at
hospital
Aura Escobar
3rd receptionist at
hospital
Max Alfredo Coe Tux
Ivan Sanchez
pxjlicemen at Ceibal
guarding oil barrel
Wilfredo Hernandez
Alvarado
Ramon Otzay Sucuc
policemen guarding
barner
Erma Bradley
lady holding daughter in

flood
Shelmar Bradley
boy in pink top
Luis Cails Sosa Carlos
driver of red pick-up
truck
Rene Moreno Lopez
passenger in red pick-up
truck

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 77
1
 Films
CREDITS Simeon (Sauve nous structure, which is nicely episodic
Seigneur)" - Lucien
A film by and incidentally dramatic, in keeping
Deiss;"OPeredes
Xavier Beauvots
lumieres" - Marcel
with the ‘if it’s Wednesday it must be
Screenplay Le Havre’ itinerary of its travelling
Godard; "LeLacdes
Etienne CkDmar
cygnes (op.20. players. Amalric’s handling of such a
Adaptation/Dialogue
Moderato)" by Pyotr
Xavier Beauvois structure no doubt contributed to his
Ilyich Tchaikovsky - RTV
Etienne Ckjmar
Slovenia Symphony best director award at the 2010 Cannes
Director of
Orchestra film festival and it’s here that many
Photography Sound
Caroline Champetier
of the movie’s pleasures reside. When
Jean-Jacques Ferran
Editing
EricBonnard
Zand takes off alone to set up the
Marie-Julie Maille an
tour’s final date in Paris, there’s
Stunt Co-ordinator
Art Director
Cedric Proust encounter with a vivacious petrol-
Michel Barthelemy
Monastic Consultant
station cashier (Aurelia Petit) which
Henry Quinson
©Armada Films, Why touchingly evokes their shared en
Not Productions. France
CAST passant yedLining. Likewise, when one
3 Cinema
Production of the Burlesque girls drags a sexually
Lambert Wilson
Companies Christian incompetent software salesman into
Armada Films and Why Michael Lonsdale a hotel toilet, a little Asian girl sitting
Not Productions Luc outside overhears the heated tryst
present a Why Not Olivier Rabourdin
Productions. Armada Christophe
within and innocently wonders, “Are
Films. France 3 Cinema Philippe Laudenbach there animals in there?” And while all
co-production with Celestin the performers get a turn in the film,
participation of France Jacques Herlin
they are often shot from backstage,
Televisions. Canal-t-. Am^ee
Cin^in6ma. Centre LoYc Pichon with the foreground occupied by the
National de la Jean-Pierre chaotic bustle in the wings.
Cinematographie et de Xavier Maly
To see Amalric playing Joachim
I'lmageAnim^in Michel
association with Jean-Marie Frin
Zand it’s hard not to be reminded of
Cofinova 6. Soficinema Raul The show must go on: Suzanne Ramsey, Linda Marracini Cassavetes’s The Killing of a Chinese
6,Cinemage4 Olivier Perrier Bookie {igj 6 ), in which Ben Gazzara
Executive Producers Bruno
metropolis. And certain cliches of starred as strip-joint owner Cosmo
Marline Cassinelli
Frantz Richard
Executive Producers
Sabrina Ouazani
Rabbia
Farid Larbi
On Tour the ‘backstage movie’ are carefully
observed: Zand as the harassed, chain-
Vitelli, a man who loved all his girls.
While On Tour settles a little too easily
in Morocco Ali Fayattia
Irene Production:
France/Germany 2010 smoking impresario, constantly in conclusion for the troupe-as-one-
Adel Bencherif
Frantz Richard terrorist Director: Mathieu Amalric juggling a mobile phone and trying big-family cliche, and Amalric still

Jean-David Lefebvre Benai'ssa Ahaouari to keep the show on the road, with looks rather too boyish to bring off
Production Managers Sidi Larbi
With Miranda Colclasure,
the troupe a surrogate family to the grizzled weariness necessary to
Thibault Mattei Idriss Karim Suzanne Ramsey, Mathieu Amalric
KhaledHaffad Hadji
i

replace his sundered relationship make Zand completely believable,

Production Abdellah Chakiri with his estranged wife and kids. the film’s engaging confidence and
Co-ordination fnlniTPl Few observers of the Young French On Tour hsis something to say about inclusive good nature prove he’s
Ilham Raouf Abdelhaf id Metalsi
Cinema of the 1990s could have guessed the formative dynamic that underlies worth watching both as an actor
Post-production
Supervisor
Nouredine
Mikxjd Khetib
that one of its favourite actors would all French popular culture, its love-hate and a director. ^
Chris Darke
Beatrice Mauduit leWalli achieve such high visibility a decade relationship with America. ‘New
Assistant Directors Abdallah Moundy
Guillaume Bonnier
or so later that he’d start appearing Burlesque’ is, after all, an American CREDITS CineCinema with the
1st: Omar support of La R^ion
Akrame El Meziane all over the place. At one point, it was import and Zand is a character whose Directed by
Goran Kostic des Rays de la Loire.
Amine Louadni foreman unusual to see a French film that didn’t exposure to the States has done nothing Mathieu Amalric
La Region Haute-
Constance Stalla Stanislas Stanic feature the puppyish charm of Mathieu to improve his prospects in his native Produced by Normandie. Le
Zineb Beirhaba Arben Bajraktaraj Laetitia Gonzalez Departementdela
Amalric in a lead or walk-on role. It land;he fails spectacularly to call in
Mahmoud Belhacen Croatian workmen Yael Fogiel
Charente-Maritime.
Script Supervisor Zhour Laamri soon became apparent that this was favours from his successful TV-producer Screenplay La Region Poitou
Agathe Grau Sidi Larbi's wife an actor with ambitions for an brother and ends up assaulting an Mathieu Amalric Charentes in
Casting Raouya Philippe Di Fdco partnership with CNC
international career and he began to influential elderly impresario. It’s in
Brigitte Moidon village woman Marcelo Novais Teles association with Sofica
Gaffer
appear in increasingly prominent roles: hard not to interpret elements of the RaphaeileValbrune
Farid Bouslam EuropaCorp and Sofica
Emmanuel Demorgon Ahmed a cameo in Steven Spielberg’s Munich film as a parable, displaced on to the Director of
Coficup (a Backup Films
Key Grip Chadia Assal world of theatrical Photography fund) A Les Films du
(2005); the lead in Julian Schnabel’s striptease, of the
Mohamed El Ouardi Nouredine'swife Chnstophe Beaucarne
Special Effects Crew
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007); actor-director’s own place in French Editor
Poisson production in

Maria Bouslam co-production with

Pierre-Olivier Persin Saloua
and, inQuantum ofSolace {200S), playing cinema, negotiating the somewhat Annette Dutertre Neue Mediopolis
Bruno Maloberti Souka'fna Bouslam the least menacing of Bond villains. hermetic and exclusive domain of Art Director
Filmproduktion
Franck Limon St^hane Taillasson
Saloua’s daughter On top of which, the actor has also auteur film and the energetic spectacle (Alexander Ris, Petra
Duparcmeur Adile Bouslam Henggeand Jorg
Ariane Moreau
nurtured a parallel career as a director, of American entertainment. Zand ©Les Films du Poisson.
circumcised boy Rothe). ARTE France
Emmanuelle Gauthier Rabii Ben Johail making eight shorts since 1985 and is also a tribute to the figure of the film Neue Mediopdis Cinema. WDR/ARTE.
Tamara Walsh Filmproduktion, ARTE
Said Naciri three features since 2000, of which producer as a tightrope walker. Amalric LeF^cte.Film(s)in
Additional Editor Hamid Aboutaieb France Cinema.
JulieDuclaux
On Tour is the first in which he also has stated that the character was partly WDR/ARTE.LePacte
association with Sofica
terronsts EuropaCorp. Sofica
Set Decorator Alaoui El Hassan
takes the lead. inspired by the tragic example of and Film(s)
El Coficup (a Backup Films
Hind Ghazali shepherd Amalric plays Joachim Zand, a buccaneering French producers Jean- Production
fund) with the
Props Buyer Companies
former television producer who returns Pierre Rassam and Humbert Balsam, participation of CNC
OmarOuachane Dolby Digital Les Films du Poisson (Centre national de
Property Master Colour
to France after a long sojourn in the US, who both worked themselves into presents in co-
la

In cinematographie et
Guillaume Deviercy [235:1] shepherding a New Burlesque troupe on early graves. The moustache the actor production with ARTE
derimageanimee.
Construction Manager Subtitles a tour of coastal towns with the promise affects for the role is supposedly worn France Cinema.
Ministene de la Culture
Martinus Van Lunen WDR/ARTE.Neue el de la
of a finale in Paris. His performers, with in homage to the unflagging Portuguese
Costume Designer Distributor Mediopolis
Communication). FFA -
Marielle Robaut Artificial Eye Film
stage names like ‘Dirty Martini’ and art-cinema producer Paolo Branco. Filmproduktion, Le
FilmfOrderungsanstalt.
Costumes Company ‘Kitten on the Keys’, aren’t glossy Dita Such meta-cinematic concerns are Pacte, Film(s) with the
Canal+ and
Alice Camboumac Von Teese-alikes but curvaceous and carefully woven into the film’s overall participation of Canal +.

Bouazza Waradi 10.974 ft +0 frames

Hair Designer
tattooed peroxide-blondes, and much
Eric Monteil French theatrical title of the film’s energy is generated by SYNOPSIS France, the present. Having returned after a long spell in the US,
Key Hair Stylist Des hommes et des juxtaposing this riotous, good-hearted
Zhor Bennani
former TV producer Joachim Zand is touring an American striptease troupe
dieux
ensemble with the provincial settings around coastal towns. Leaving the troupe, he drives to Paris to organise a venue
Soundtrack
"Seigneur, ouvre mes and interchangeable hotels they pass for the final date. He persuades his reluctant brother to arrange a meeting with
levres"; "Puisqu’il est through. In this. On Tour is not unlike an influential impresario; the meeting goes disastrously wrong, leaving Zand
avec nous" - Philippe
Xavier Giannoli’s underrated The Singer without the Paris performance he has promised the troupe. Zand picks up his
Robert; "Voici la nuit",

“PSaume 142 (Comme (2006), in which Gerard Depardieu
une terre assoiff^e)" - delivered one of his best performances
Tamie Abbey; "Nous ne in years as a faded chanteur
savons piaston
mystere": "Cantiquede
the small town circuit in a study of
the travails of showbiz life
two young sons and rejoins the tour; one of the boys goes missing and is picked
up by the police. Driving to the last date, Zand rekindles a relationship with one
working of the performers, and the pair get lost en route. Finally, the troupe are reunited
in an abandoned hotel in Bordeaux.
beyond the

78 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
Cin^Cin^ma With the liangliao’'-S.H.E.;‘‘The
SYNOPSIS Greendykes housing estate, Edinburgh, present day. Withdrawn
support of La
des Pays de la Loire,
R^ion Lounge Pianist”; "The
Need in Me"; "J’ai Outcast teenager Fergal moves into a flat with his single mother Mary. They are both
foods d'aide Region reapprisavivre”-
sidhe - Celtic fairy people - and have been on the run for years from Fergal’s
Haute-Normandie in Freddy Boys Ireland/United Kingdom 2009
association with Le P6le Sound cursed destiny. Mary uses spells to ensure that their location remains hidden
Image Haute- Mauvezin
Olivier
Director: Colm McCarthy from anyone wishing them ill, and warns Fergal against getting too close to
Normandie, Le Re-recording Mixer With James Nesbitt, Kate Dickie, teenage neighbour Petronella. Mary is right to be concerned, for mother and son
D^rtement de la StephaneThiebaut
Niall Bruton, Hanna Stanbridge are being relentlessly hunted down by Fergal’s uncle Liam and father Cathal, the
Charente-Maritime and Sound Editor
La R^ion Pbitou- Severin Favriau latter a power-hungry man granted temporary magical gifts by Mary’s family to
Charenteswith the New Burlesque kill his forbidden progeny. As Fergal’s relationship with Petronella blossoms, and
support of the MEDIA Consultant
While the haunted house has long
the increasingly out-of-control Cathal determines to kill Mary along with Fergal,
Programme of the Kitty HartI been a staple of horror, more recently
European Community a beast haunts the estate at night, murdering several people but sparing Petronella
a socially conscious variant has
andPROCIREP
CAST emerged in British genre cinema - and her Down’s syndrome brother Tomatsk.
Production Manager
After Cathal’s efforts to track down Mary and Fergal are thwarted by Mary’s
Fr^d^ric Blum Miranda Coldasure the haunted housing estate. In films
herself. ‘Mimi Le Meaux’ magic, he abandons Liam and, using a type of necromancy expressly prohibited
Post-production such as Genevieve Jolliffe’s Urban
Supervisor Suzanne Ramsey
Ghost Story (iggS), Johnny Kevorkian’s by the local sidheLdiiid, manages to obtain Mary and Fergal’s address. He
Eric Duriez herself. ‘Kitten on the confronts and kills Mary, only to be killed himself by Fergal, who has emerged
Assistant Directors Keys’ The Disappeared {200%) and Philip
Linda Marracini Ridley’s Heartless (loog), supernatural
from his bedroom in the form of the beast. Fergal meets Petronella in the estate’s
1st: Elsa Amiel
2nd: Franklin herself. ‘Dirty Martini’
entities visit their own mythological playground, but as the couple have sex together for the first time, Fergal
Ohannessian Julie Ann Muz transforms once again. Liam appears and tells Petronella that he must stop
Muz’
herself. Julie Atlas
framework on all the disaffection,
Script Supervisor
the beast, as it can only be killed by its own kin. Petronella shouts a warning
^todie van Beuren Angela De Lorenzo deprivation, desperation and decay
to the beast, and it kills Liam. When it turns on Petronella, she stabs it.
2rKd Camera herself, ‘Evie Lovelle' of gritty modern urban landscapes.
Operators Alexander Craven
Similarly, Outcast opens with images The Laird approaches Petronella begging in the street, and reveals that she
Performances himself. ‘Roky Roulette'
of primordial runes and mystic sigils
was able to kill the beast only because she is pregnant with Fergal’s child.
Christophe Legal Mathieu Amalric
Berto Joachim Zand graffitiedon the walls of Edinburgh’s
Gaffer Damien Odoul Greendykes estate - where director/
Frangois
CREDITS National Lottery Fund 2nd: Mark Inglis Make-up Designer
Jean-Pierre Lacroix Supfoortedbythe Script Supervisor Niamh Morrison
Ulysse Klotz
co-writer Colm McCarthy spent his Directed!:^
Key Grip National Lottery Dorothy Connelly Make-up Artist
Julien Covens Ulysse childhood years before cutting his Colm McCartriy through Scottish Screen Casting Director Maxine Dallas
Properties Simon Roth teeth on numerous television series Produced by Developed with the Des Hamilton Special Make-up
Christophe Offret Baptiste John McDonnell support of Bord Camera Operator Effects Designer
and a short film {The Making of a
Costumes Joseph Roth Brendan McCarthy Scanndn na hfireann A: Dave Grennan Paul Flyett
Balthazar Prodigy, 2003). Eddie Dick
Alexia Crisp-Jones Produced in association Gaffers Title Artists
Make-up Aurelia Petit “There’s a beast after me, because WHttenby with Headgear and Scotland: Untitled Berlin
Colm McCarthy
Delphine Jaffart girl at service station
of my father. I might even be
think it Metrol Technology Andrew Stewart Saskia Ruter
Hairdresser Antoine Gouy Tom K. McCarthy Executive Producers Sarah Nock
Humeau software installation
my father." The strange, withdrawn Director of
Ireland:
Julien Carole Sheridan Con Dempsey Sound Recordist
Opening Titles man 1 6-year-old Fergal (Niall Bruton) may Photography Phil Hunt Visual Effects Lead Bnan Milliken
Deubal Pierre Grimblat articulate the concept in oddly vivid Darran Tieman Compton Ross Artist Stunt Co-ordinator
Marquezy Chapuis Editor
Olivier
Jean-Toussaint
language, but his words strike home Helen Chapman
for Bord Scann^n na Rudolf Germann Abbi Collins
Titles Graphic Artist h&reann: Visual Effects by
Julien Baret Bernard in Greendykes, where many of his Production Designer Alan Maher Windmill Lane
End Titles hotel(s) receptionist neighbours much like him,
are, TomSayer Line Producer Arri Muenchen
CAST
Anne Benoit Composer James Nesbitt
TEST fatherless refugees from their own Wendy Gnff in Special Effects
Music Supervisor supermarket cashier Giles Packham Cathal
Production Manager Elements Special
Florence Ben Sadoun
pasts - including Petronella (Hanna
Elise Duguem Ireland: Effects Kate Dickie
Soundtrack woman in hospital Stanbridge), the Romanian girl-next- ©Fantastic Films Ltd.
Rachel Lysaght Johnny Raf ique Mary
"Have Love Will Travel" - Erwan Ribard door who with her alcoholic single
lives Makar Production Production Nick Rideout Niall Bruton
The Sonics; "Black and commissar Production Co-ordinators Art Director Fergal
mother and Down’s syndrome brother. Companies
Tan Fantasy”; "I Put a Julie Ferrier
Kieran Hannigan Fiona Gavin Hanna Stanbridge
Spell on You” Julie Ferner Like Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right Fantastic Films presents
Amy Munro Graffiti Artist Petronella
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins; Franzo Curcio One In (2008), Outcast anchors all its in co-production with Production Kieran Gorman Ciar^n McMenamin
"God Saves the USA" - theatre manager paranormal activities in a fragile Makar Productions with Accountants Prop Buyer Liam
Amandine Bourgeois; Fr^eric Richard the participation of Bord James Cosmo
romance between young lovers who, Site Domey Janice MacRae
"Hub Caps and Tail Caf4-Relais guitarist Scann^n na htireann/ ShawStatham Prop Master laird

Lights” from Breakfast Andr4 S. Labarthe though from different worlds, bond Irish Film Board.
Rachel Quigley Smith Tony Sheridan Josh Whitelaw
at Tf/fenys by Henry cabaret owner over their shared dream of fitting in Scottish Screen.
Location Managers Construction Tomatsk
Mancini - Henry Jean-Frangois Headgear/Metrol Therese Bradl^
Marquet
or moving on - and McCarthy’s film, Technology
Brodie Pringle Co-ordinator
Mancini & His 2nd Unit: Christian Fenwicke- Jitta
journalist like Alfredson’s, blends a delicate Produced with the Sean McCarthy
Orchestra; "Louie Louie" Tom Jenkins Ctennell
-(1) The Nomads. (2) Laurent Roth restraintwith a strong sense of place. support of investment Post-production Construction Old Hands
The Kingsmen; "Angry airline captain incentives for the Irish Fiona O’Shaughnessy
The location, not to mention the Supervisors Managers
Sea (Waimea)"; Alexia Crisp-Jones Film Industry provided Niamh
Beriin: Todd Zonderman
hostess
presence of Kate Dickie in the role of by the Government of
"Theme for Gipsy" air
Rebekka Garrido Bob Barclay Christine Tremarco
Sonny Lester and his H^ne Houel Fergal’s tough-loving mother Mary, Ireland
Dublin: Costume Designer housing officer
Orchestra; "Moon River" Hotel Mencure\A/aitress may evoke the contemporary cinema Developed with the Tim Morris Rhona Russell Karen Gillan
- Liberace; "The Feriel assistance of the
Assistant Directors Costume Supervisor Ally
of Andrea Arnold, but in it are staged
Shimmy” - The oriental dancer Scottish Screen
1st: Jonathan Farmer Elaine Robertson Andrew Martin
Upsetters; "You Don’t Erick Lenoir timeless rites of passage and oedipal James
Care”- Terry Callier; "I Cafe Flipper owner son coming of age must
conflicts, as a Daniel Porter
Will" - Suzanne Xavier Pettier
assume the bestial legacy of the father Paul
Ramsey. ‘Kitten on the delivery guy Wendy Wasson
Keys’, guitar by Ulysse
(James Nesbitt) who left him at birth. It’s barmaid
Klotz; "On the Good Dolby Digital a seemingly incongruous clash of the Ian Whyte
Ship Lollipop”. "My Girl's In Colour old and the new, and yet by reimagining the beast
Pussy”. "DrTeam On”. [L85:l] Jody Monteith
the alienated, underground existence
"Hole in My Head". "Kitty Subtitles youth
Muffins”.
of the sidhe- the ancient fairy folk of Alex McSharry
"Stumphosenrap”. ‘Ode Distributor Celtic myth - in a contemporary setting coroner
to Dita" - Suzanne Artificial Eye Film
where everyone seems marginalised Bran the dog
Ramsey. ‘Kitten on the Company Wilson
and invisible, McCarthy has hit upon a
Keys’; "I Got to Move” -
Ron Sunshine; "Sowar French/German perfect match. At its heart, this is a very Dolt^ Digital
el habibab” - Hossam theatrical title human drama of dysfunction, betrayal In Colour

Ramzy. "Overture" from Toum6e [1.85:1]

and abandonment, in which the sins of
"The Magic Flute" by
Wolfgang Amadeus
each generation are passed on to the Distributor
Mozart - Failoni next - but for all the naturalism of its Vertigo Films
Orchestra Budapest; presentation, the Greendykes estate
‘‘K620. No.2 Papageno”
from "The Magic Hute”
is also made to accommodate spells,
by Wolfgang Amadeus curses, necromancy and shape-shifting,
Mozart; "Wang ri qing” in a verymodern retelling of the
aka "Yesterday’s Love’!
werewolf mythos. This is social
"And so the Story Goes
(DiDaDi)”-CocoLee; realism wrapped in a new skin, and
"Girl on the Sand” by in McCarthy it introduces a new,
Stanley Myers; "Looking fully formed talent to British genre
back on Love"; "Tian
cinema. Anton Bitel Oedipus wrecks: James Nesbitt

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 79
1
 Films

Paranormal Rare Exports

Activity 2 A Christmas
USA 2010 Tale
Director: Tod Williams
With Katie Featherston, Micah Finland/Norway/
Sloat, Brian Boland, Molly Ephraim France/Sweden 2010
Certificate 15 90m 59s Director: Jalmari Helander
With Onni Tommila, Jorma
Oren Peli’s 2009 film Paranormal Activity
Tommila, Tommi Korpela,
- a logical successor to The Blair Witch Rauno Juvonen
Project and a notable box-office success Certificate 15 82m 38s
after its subtler original ending was
replaced by a jump-at-the-camera payoff As long Christmas makes the box
as
- had the sort of investment-to-profit office jingle,filmmakers will contrive
ratio that made a sequel mandatory, novel twists on that festive theme,
whether its small-scale high concept ‘the trouble with Santa’. The red-clad
was suited to a follow-up or not. Barking up the right tree: ‘Paranormal Activity 2’ philanthropist rarely gets an easy ride,
Eschewing the errors of Book ofShadows facing kidnap (The Nightmare before
Blair Witch 2, Paranormal Activity 2 looks Brian Boland and Molly Ephraim are Executive Producers Sound Mixer Christmas), arrest (Miracle on 34th Street)
Steven Schneider Zsolt Magyar
very much like its predecessor, albeit all slightly better known faces than or family issues (sibling rivalry in Fred
AkivaGoldsman Re-recording Mixers
with more set-ups. Presented as a Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat, Co-producer Mark Binder Claus, or, in The Santa Clause, he’s
compilation of recordings with time who starred in the original - don’t AmirZbeda Nick Shaffer literally your dad.)
codes and date captions (and some work up the credible friction the Line Producer Stunt Co-ordinator The diverting concept behind
Jeanette Volturno-Brill Rob King
tactful fast-forwards), it benefits from two-hander in the first film managed Unit Production Animal Wrangler
Finnish fantasy Rare Exports is that
a number of fixed security cameras (Featherston and Sloat return, and Manager Steve Berens Santa is a horned beast, long buried
around a haunted property (vdth give good accounts of themselves Rick A. Csako under a mountain and now unearthed
Production
significant blind-spots left to be by ignoring all the foreshadowing
Co-ordinator
CAST by an American industrialist who,
explored by a handheld) to augment that might mess with the character Laura Altmann Katie Featherston per Jurassic Park, doesn’t realise what
the video-diary-look footage. development they did last time round). Production Katie his curiosity will unleash. In billing
Micah Sloat
Director Tod Williams (taking a This leaves some plot feints (such as Accountant Santa as a bogeyman who boils naughty
Carlo FTatto Micah
good-for-the-CV commercial teenage notion that maybe spirits
Ali’s Brian Boland children in his cauldron, Jalmari
Location Manager
assignment between his John Irving aren’t malevolent, leading to the goes- David Thomsberry Daniel Rey Helander’s feature debut ingeniously
adaptation The Door in the Floor and an nowhere what-if-it’s-Mom suggestion) Assistant Directors Molly Ephraim exploits the fact that Santa, though
1st: James Moran Ali Rey
upcoming Americanisation of the and character turns (the truly Sprague Grayden
in theory benign, in reality strikes
2nd: Marc Newland
Icelandic thriller MyrinfJar City) and despicable act Ali’s dad performs to Script Supervisors Kristi Rey terror into many children’s hearts.
screenwriter Michael R. Perry (who save - temporarily - his neck) seeming BabetteStith David Bierend Since Santa looms so large in the
surveillance camera
has written for genre TV shows such fairly ho-hum. Here, the film ventures Diane Lea Weiss plot (and publicity, onscreen title and
Casting expert
as Eerie Indiana, American Gothic, into areas of drama ill-suited to the Seth Ginsberg credits graphics), you could be forgiven
Michael Hothorn
Millennium, FreakyLinks and The Dead spycam aesthetic and naturalistic natter Chief Lighting Brad for expecting him to appear in the film.
Zone) are solid professionals, but must of what the producers must be hoping Technician William Juan Prieto Yet despite a deft build-up, this dreaded
Damon Liebowitz Jackson Xenia Prieto
have gone against their instincts to will be a Paranormal Activity franchise. monster never appears (though his
mimic the CCTV look, accumulation-of- ^ Kim Newman Company Grip
1st
Paul M. Farley
Hunter Rey
Vivis horns do). Denying us the anticipated
tiny-incidents plotting and improv- Visual Effects by Martine child-snatching mayhem badly wrong-
sounding dialogue Peli devised in the CREDITS Director of Hammerhead foots the audience, resulting in a
Photography Productions Dolby Digital/DTS/
first place to suit his low budget. At Directed by SDDS slightly dour romp. Who it’s aimed
Michael Simmonds Property Master
once a prequel and a sequel, dovetailing Tod Williams Edited by Zachery Alexander Colour by at is anybody’s guess (ageing Terry
Produced by DeLuxe
cleverly with the events of Paranormal Gregory Plotkin Costume Designer Pratchett fans?). With its bleeding
Jason Blum Production Designer Kristin M. Burke [1.85:1]
Activity, this relies a little too much Oren Peli bodies, swearing, and malevolent,
Jennifer Spence Prosthetic Make-up
on creaky expositional devices such Screenplay Effects Created by Distributor marauding, naked old men chasing
as the conveniently superstitious Michael R. Perry
©Paramount Pictures AlrTX)st Human Inc. Paramount Pictures UK a little boy across the snow, it’s surely
Christopher Landon Puppeteer
ethnic nanny (far less credible than TomPabst
Corporation not for nippers.
Production Zachery Alexander 8,188 ft +12 frames
the equivalent Hispanic exorcist who Story Uneven in tone, the film brings to
Companies Sound Designers
appeared in The Possession ofJoel Delaney Michael R. Perry
Paramount Pictures Mark Binder mind variously the subversive charm
Based on the film
back in 1972) and some species of presents a Blumhouse. Peter A. Brown of Delicatessen, the stately pacing of
Paranormal Activity by Solana Films. Room 101. Sound Supervisor
demon-premise-explaining internet Oren Peli Signs (which Helander cites as an
Inc. production Mark Binder
wiki which turns out to be dead on the inspiration), the industrial-unit hostage
money. This slightly misses the point, situation of Reservoir Dogs (comyhte
in that what’s scary is the randomness SYNOPSIS US, 2006. The Rey family - Kristi and Daniel, their infant son with ear-severing) and the bleak kidnap
of a haunting. Knowing why this Hunter and Ali, Daniel’s daughter from an earlier marriage - find their house farce of Fargo. It perhaps most resembles
particular family has been targeted, has seemingly been broken into and vandalised, though little has been stolen. Alex de la Iglesia’s 1995 film El dia de
with a heavily signposted get-out clause, la bestia, which also blended irreverent
Daniel has security cameras installed around the property, to augment the
doesn’t really increase the horror, and recordings the family make with a camcorder. Minor mysterious events occur apocalyptic menace with a feel for
just opens up a can of plot-worms (it’s - a pool-cleaning machine keeps climbing out of the pool, doors open and close local colour.
all the fault of the great-grandmother by themselves, securely hung pots fall. Martine, Hunter’s nanny, worries that The unfamiliar setting in remote
of the sisters who are the protagonists the house is haunted and takes to performing rituals to banish evil spirits, northern Finland is beautiful and
of each film). Indeed, upping the stakes which prompts Daniel to fire her. Kristi’s sister Katie admits that when they were unsettling. With its big hills, isolated
- by having an imperilled child, a leggy children the girls were bothered by a haunting that subsided after their house farms and precarious hold of law,
teenage girl, a devoted dog and two burned down. Ali discovers on the internet that a traditional pact with a demon it evokes the feel of a western (with

marked-for-death adults in the house
- actually diffuses the shock.
The biggest jump here harks back
to Poltergeist (ig82), as the heroine
disturbed by a sudden mass-telekinetic
attack in her kitchen in broad daylight
- a scare, followed by a credible reaction
(she swears and runs away) and a
suspense-relieving giggle as her
abandoned kettle starts to whistle.
The new cast - Sprague Grayden,
can involve bartering away the firstborn son of a family in exchange for wealth, snow-bikes replacing horses). Helander
and she works out that Hunter is the first male child in Kristi’s family since her boasts an impressive visual style, with
great-grandmother became rich in the 1930s. Poltergeist activity continues and a Spielbergian sensibility in his fluid
is
Kristi is targeted - though the invisible presence seems to be after Hunter.
framing and cutting, and in his eliciting
One night, Daniel and Ali are tricked out of the house by an assault on their of a good lead performance from a
child. He boldly eschews all cosiness:
dog, and Kristi seems to be possessed. Daniel calls in Martine, and learns that
a ritual could turn the demon away from their home if it is directed instead at the hardy characters (all male) are
another family member. outdoorsy types with no time for festive
A month later, after Katie has been possessed and has killed her boyfriend Micah, warmth or home comforts; every room
she turns up at the Rey house, kills Daniel and Kristi, and vanishes with Hunter. is a tip and everyone needs a haircut.
Clearly aiming for the status of

80 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
 SYNOPSIS Remote northern Finland, the present. American mogul Riley
unearths a frozen block containing Santa Claus, a homed, child-snatching beast,
Saw 3D
and his elves, who are naked old men. When reindeer are found slaughtered, local
USA 2010
farmers blame Russian wolves, and widowed father Rauno digs an illegal spiked
pit in hisgrounds to catch them. The pit entraps a bearded old man whom Rauno Director: Kevin Greutert

takes for dead. Fearful of arrest, he prepares to saw the body up, but the man is With Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor,
alive and Rauno believes he has caught Santa. He arranges to hand the captive Betsy Russell, Sean Patrick Flanery
over to Riley for a ransom. Riley explains that this is merely an elf dedicated to Certificate 18 89m 46s
protecting Santa.
The elves have kidnapped local children and stolen everyone’s radiators; they The Saw franchise endures mostly
are defrosting Santa’s ice blockand keeping the children in potato sacks for Santa thanks to its set pieces: the industrial
to eat. Rauno blows Santa’s ice block up while son Pietari lures the elves into a
death-traps, which are designed to teach
reindeer pen.
a valuable lesson - here, for instance,
Rauno and his friends train the now jobless elves to be nice to children and two guys who have unknowingly been
set up a firm shipping Santas around the world. seeing the same woman are strapped
to buzz-saws which they can choose
‘quirky festive gem’, this dark comic Lehikoinen Jonathan Hutchings to shove into each other or save their
Key Grip Greene
fable plays as and Roald
if Tarantino lives by allowing the two-timing minx
TorulfOhman Risto Salmi
Dahl had collaborated on a macabre Visual Effects sheriff
to be cut in half. All the way back to
Santa origin story and got sidetracked. Fake Graphics Ltd Jens Sivertsen James Wan’s ingenious SflU7 (2004)
It’s something of a shaggy-dog story, 2nd Unit: Sigmund Boe there has also been a structural daring,
Lapland Studio Ltd Olav Pedersen
and it’s telling that the title and poster Special Effects/ Nils M. Iselvmo
with multiple storylines and timelines
refer to the final-minute punchline. Pyrotechnics main elves dovetailing across all the films, and
(Unsurprisingly, the film springs from Dan Erik Heggelund Steinar Skogstad the pale, calm, impressive presence
two shorts by Helander, 2003’s Rare SFXCompaniet Nils Nymo of Tobin Bell as a villain who isn’t even
Additional Editing Hjalmar Iselvmo
Exports Inc audits 2005 sequel, about Sebastien Prang^e Steinar Tunes technically a serial killer (the point is

the farming of Santas, which attained Frederic Thoraval Torgeir Fbsberg that all his victims could escape if they
YouTube glory.) Set Designers Tor Kvammen took drastic and painful measures).
Torunn Anf insen Hans Prestbakmo
Finnish culture may not sweep the LivAsk l^ersen
Alf Roald
In this seventh instalment, which
globe in huge quantities. One thinks Concept Art Nikola] Alsterdal drops the title numeral to play up the
of Aki Kaurismaki and Sibelius (and PekkaVfeikkolainen elves 3D add-on, the traps are still highlights,
Illustrators Knut Osa Greger
perhaps of Renny Harlin and Eurovision though a certain repetition has set in
Lauri Ahonen cargo Santa
winners Lordi). Though less than the Jenni Juntunen KjellToreNordli which mutes the effect. There is even
sum of its parts, Helander’s atmospheric Prop Masters helicopter pilot a thread of revisiting greatest hits I Run for your wife: Gina Holden
delve into Finnish folklore could easily LenaP.Cederiund Stein-Erik Olsen worked into the plot, as the bear- trap
PerGunnarSaneng herdsman
have enough international appeal to Construction/Set Atle Kirkegard
device used in the first film (and, I Flanery, cast as the author of a bogus
become itself one of those rare exports. Manager Hans Lindgard promo short Saw creators
indeed, in the I
Jigsaw survivor memoir and somehow
Patrick Fahy RunarWaag Enar Fagertun Wan and Leigh Whannell made to i
less resonant a prime victim than the
Costume Design Bjorn Pedersen
with a
raise funds) is finally sprung, callous medical insurance functionary
Saija Siekkinen Tommy Svendsen i

CREDITS Institute. Nordic Film & stereoscopic explosion of blood and tormented last time round. Further
Make-up Artist miners I

TV Fund
Salla Mantymaa teeth. And the inevitable last-reel instalments are probably unavoidable.
Directed by
Jalmari Helander
Producers
With the support of The
MEDIA Programme of
Sound Design
Tuomas Seppanen
Dolby Digital
In Colour
revelation, which features one of the
i

I
^ Kim Newman
the European Union
Timo Anttila [2.35:1]
series’ now traditional hallucinatory I
Petri Jokiranta
Line Producer
Knut Skoglund Jussi Honka Subtitles flashback montages that only make I CREDITS Burg/Koules/Hoffman
Anna Bjork production
Agn^sB. Sound Recordist sense watched at the end of a seven-
if Directed by
Production Manager Produced in association
Rune Hansen Distributor
F.X. Frantz
Daniel Kuitunen film marathon, sets up a return to the I
Kevin Greutert with A Bigger Boat and
Anna BjOrk Sound Re-recording Icon Film Distribution Produced by Serendipity Productions
Production
Mixer basement bathroom where it all started, I

Gregg Hoffman
Written by Co-ordinators
I
Produced with the
Jalmari Helander Pekka Karjalainen 7.437 ft +0 frames and a cameo from Cary Elwes, star of I
Oren Koules assistance of Ontario
Erica Restoften
Based on the original Berengere Barrier Saw, whose character is now placed I
Mark Burg Production Services Tax
Finnish/Norwegian/ Written by
idea by the Helander
Accountants CAST French/Swedish
to be on board in possible future Patrick Melton
Credit. Rim or Video
Brothers I Production Services Tax
Finland;
[i.e. Jalmari Helander,
Onni Tommila theatrical title instalments, with a couple of other I
Marcus Dunstan Credit
Heikki Keskinen Director of
Pietari Rare Exports Executive Producers
Juuso Helander] sorely injured folks still lingering as
Norway; Jorma Tommila Photography
Onscreen English title Daniel Jason Heffner
Director of possible co-stars.
Marianne Tollefsen Rauno. Pietari’s father Brian Gedge Peter Block
Photography Rare Exports From the I

Mika Orasmaa
Sweden; Tommi Korpela Land of the Original If the Saw 5D traps are less ingenious Editor Jason Constantine
Mcirten Sandberg Andrew/ Courts James Wan
Editing
Aimo Santa Claus - often, the scrupulous fairness is absent I

Post-production Production Designer Leigh Whannell

Rauno Juvonen - it’s explained by the fact that prime
KimmoTaavila Producer Tony lanni
Piiparinen I Stacey Testro
Production Design Music by/Original
Tomi Nieminen Per Christian Ellefsen mover Hoffman is simply a Jigsaw Co-producer
Jalmari Helander
Post Supervisor Score Performed ty Troy Begnaud
Original Music
Riley Onni Tommila imitator, since the original has been Charlie Clouser
Antti Peltoranta I Associate Producer
Juri Seppa
Assistant Directors
llmari Jarvenpaa dead since 2006’s Saw III A downside Kaleigh Kavanagh
Juuso, Pietan’s ©Lions Gate Films Inc.
MiskaSeppa IsLVillylndal is that top-billed Bell has a much I Production Manager
friend Production Companies Kym Crepin
2nd; Nina Erdahl Peeter reduced role, primarily in one flashback Twisted Rctures Production
©Cinet.RomorFilm. Continuity
Love Streams agn6s B.
Jakobi encounter with newcomer Sean Patrick presents a Co-ordinator
Sylvi Granheim Pietari's
Productions. Davaj Film
Casting elf
Production
Nina Erdahl
Companies SYNOPSIS US, the present. Renegade cop Hoffman, who has been carrying on
Laura Munsterhjelm
Cinet, Pomor Film. Love
Estonia;
the work of serial killer John Kramer (aka Jigsaw), survives a trap set by Jill Tuck,
Streams agnteB. MargusOunapuu Kramer’s widow. She goes to Gibson, an internal affairs officer, and offers to trade
Productions. Davaj Film.
Dramaturgs testimony against Hoffman for immunity from prosecution. Bobby Dagan, a
Filmcamp, Filmpool Petri Jokiranta
Nord in association with celebrity on the strength of his fraudulent claim that he is a survivor of a Jigsaw
Sami Parkkinen
Kinology
Gaffers death-trap, is abducted - along with his wife Joyce, publicist Nina, lawyer Suzanne
A Petri Jokiranta Jani Pinomaa and best friend/manager Gale - and put through punishing tests which prove fatal
production
2nd Unit;
A Jalmari Helander film to his entourage. Gibson investigates the site of a recent Jigsaw massacre and finds
Kosti
In co-production with clues leading him to the building where Dagan is being tested - only to fall into a
Filmcamp AS (Svein trap set for him.
Andersen and Kjetil
Jensberg), Filmpool
Hoffman infiltrates the morgue and a police station, killing law-enforcement
NordAB(Per-Erik officials and abducting Jill. Dagan is forced to go through the ordeal he described
Svensson) in his mendacious memoir, and fails - condemning his wife Joyce to roast in an
In association with YLE
oven. Hoffman uses a classic Jigsaw ‘reverse bear-trap’ device to kill Jill, but is
Co-productions (Erkki
Astala)
then captured by Dr Gordon, a one-time Jigsaw victim who has been secretly
Production Support: collaborating all along and has been charged by Kramer to look out for Jill. Gordon
The Finnish Film chains Hoffman up in the underground bathroom where he once sawed off his
Foundation (Kaisu Isto).

Norwegian Film
own foot to escape, but does not let him have a saw.

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 81 1
 Films
Becker
Cristin L. Laurence Anthony
Production Accountant
Barbara Pecs
Location Manager
Rogers
James Van Patten
Doctor Heffner
Secretariat
TomVfencelides Sebastian Pigott
Post-production Brad
USA 2010
Supervisor Jon Cor Director: Randall Wallace
Malt Cahill Ryan
2nd Unit Director Anne Greene With Diane Lane, John Malkovich,
Steve Wfebb Dina Dylan Walsh, Dylan Baker
Assistant Directors Dru Viergever
1st: Steve Webb Dan Certificate U 122m 52s
2nd: Sarah Buell Gabt^West
2ndUnit Kara
1st: David McAree Benjamin dost Itsometimes seems as though virtually
1st: David McLeod Jake any and every sports champion will
2nd: Sean Watson Kevin McGarry
Script Supervisors Charlie
eventually be converted into an
Patricia Joyes Kim Schraner inspirational Hollywood movie -
2nd Unit: Fulmer champion speed-eater Joey ‘Jaws’
Elizabeth Tremblay Olunike Adeliyi
Margaret Tanod Sidney Chestnut, Mr Forty-Five-Pi zza-Slices-in-
Castir^ Ish Morris Ten-Minutes, it can happen to you too.
Stephanie Gorin Alex
With Secretariat, however, the corks are
Stereographers Carlos Diaz
William Reeve coroner worker pulled out of the dyke holding back a
2nd Unit: Elizabeth Rowin surging sea of tear-soaked stable dung.
Gary Isaacs Sara
Camera Operator/ Christine Simpson
You’d better head to high ground.
Steadicam Donna Evans In many ways the film was
Mark Hroch Jacintha Wesselir>gh inevitable, after the success of
B Camera Operator newscaster 1
Michael Fylyshtan daudia DiFolco Seabiscuit {2003), and given the reality
Gaffers newscaster 2 of Secretariat the horse, which was
Bob McRae Kimberley D'Eon
a massive, acutely bred rocket of
Norm O’Halloran newscasters
2nd Unit: Rachel Wilson an animal with a heart more than
Herb Reischl Jr mother two times the size of a normal
Key Grips Alii Chung
Monty Montgomerie businesswoman
thoroughbred. The dictates of chest- Running on empty: Otto Thorwarth
2nd Unit: Desmond Campbell swelling sports movies demand that the
Steve Van Denzen business man climactic championship season, which given anything remotely amusing to rise to the surface. Suspect all movies
Visual Effects Billy Oliver
Supervisor police officer 1
for Secretariat was as natural as waking say.Diane Lane, as the heart-of-gold that endeavour to inspire you with
JonCampfens Liise Keeling up morning, has to be Against
in the housewife who saves the orphanage Christ imagery, but especially when
Visual Effects by police officer 2
All Odds, and so screenwriter Mike Rich (read: family horse farm) with her huge all that’s money.
at stake is
Switch VFX Tanedra Howard
Additional: Simone and director Randall Wallace concoct gamble on what seems to have been Michael Atkinson
Rocket Science VFX Shauna MacDonald one tepid, unconvincing mini-obstacle a surefire racing bonanza, retains her
String Theory VFX Tara
3D Capture/Analysis Joanna Douglas
after another, finally attempting to radiant modesty throughout, itself CREDITS Colleen Gibbons
Kentucky Unit:
Gary Isaacs Joan caricature a horse-to-horse rivalry with no small achievement. Directed by
Chris Baugh
Special Effects Janelle Hutchison a competing animal, going so far as to There’s so much hugging and Randall Wallace
2nd Unit/Visual Effects:
Supervisor Addy Produced by
Rob Sanderson GregBryk have the beasts exchange wary looks cheering you’d have thought world Damon Gordon
Gordon Gray 2nd Unit Director
Key Special Effects Mallick in close-up, and having Secretariat pee peace had finally been achieved, but Mark Ciardi
Shuba Dasgupta Larissa Gomes Rusty Hendrickson
on the shoes of a sceptical reporter. caveat emptor: the manipulations of Written by Assistant Directors
Art Director Emily
Peter Grundy Kevin Rushton Shortcuts are wall-to-wall; Wallace Secretariat, all the more outrageous Mike Rich 1st: Kim Winther
Suggested by
Set Decorator Trevor shoots his horse races like the battle for having no basis in reality, are of 2nd: Heather
DesLauriers Jagger Gordon Secretariat: The Making Wusterbarth
scenes in Braveheart {v/hich he wrote) -
LiesI
a particular stripe. Rich (writer of ofaChampionby
Property Master survivor group member 1 2nd Unit
Jim Murray Kyle dcerella too close, jittered up in post-production, The Rookie, Radio and The Nativity Story) Nack
William
1st; Lars Winther
member Director of
Construction survivor group and for much of the time it’s so difficult and Wallace (writer of Pearl Harbor 1st: Doug Plasse
Co-ordinator 2 Photography 2nd; Dennis Burrell
Robert M. Valeriote Simone Steene to tell where one horse is in relation to and director of We Were Soldiers) Dean Semler 2nd Unit/Visual Effects
Costume Designer survivor group member the others that characters have to tell are proud members of Hollywood’s Film Editor
1st; John Scotti
Alex Kavanagh 3 John Wright
us out loud. It’s the kind of soap-opera- simple-minded Christian-conservative- 2nd; Amy Schmidt
Key Make-up Artist Simon Northwood Production Designer
Colin Penman lead SWAT officer inflected drama where conversations militarist wing, and there’s a blind Script Supervisor
Tom Sanders Ram Fuller
Key Hair Stylist Regan Moore transpire only to kill the moments righteousness in the movie that’s Music by/Orchestra
Stephanie Ingram Danny Lima Casting
Titles/Opticals Brian Thomas
before someone walks in the door galling, beginning with the narration Conducted by Sheila Jaffe
NickGlennie-Smith
Pietro Gallo Wayne Downer with either good news or bad. Every citing the story of Job as history (“Three Directors of
Eric Myles Billy Oliver fool idea you could think of is piled thousand years ago, there was a man...”) Photography
Soundtrack Patrick Mark ©Disney Enterprises. 2nd Unit:
“Life Won't Wait” - Ozzy Chris McGuire
in, from Nelsan Ellis’s spiritual, yes- and the horse’s Nativity-like manger Inc.
Brad Shield
Osbourne SWAT officers massuh horse whisperer to poor John birth, through to his famous Triple Production
2nd Unit/Visual Effects:
Production Sound Don Gough Companies
Malkovich’s clownishly outfitted Crown run for redemption and its Walt Disney Pictures
Kriss Krosskove
Mixers limo driver Camera Operators
Greg Chapman David Gale trainer, who despite being positioned accompanying blasts of gospel music. presents a Mayhem Mark Goellnicht
Doug Johnston Shelley Kloffman as the crotchety comic relief is never Still, it’s tough to parse out what Pictures production
Richard Merryman
Supervising Souixl Michael Miranda A Randall Wallace film
spiritual issue is being redeemed Kriss Krosskove
Editors Chris Owens Executive Producers
here; rather, as with so much 2nd Unit/Visual Effects
MarkGingras Catherine Rix SYNOPSIS US, 1969. Colorado Johnson
Bill
Maurice McQuire
John D. Smith Kent Staines American Christian culture, it seems Mike Rich
Stunt Co-ordinator additional voice talent
housewife Penny Chenery is called Mike Martinez
Shelley Cook back home to her parents’ Virginia as though we are simply meant to Co-producer Spacecam Operator
Kim Winther 2nd Unit/Visual Effects:
Dolby Digital/SDDS horse farm when her mother dies. share vicariously and mindlessly in
Associate Producers Ron Goodman
Colour by
CAST There, she tries to assess the farm’s the triumphant glory and not wonder Andrew Wallace
DeLuxe Chief Lighting
Tobin Bell [L85:l] business and discovers that a deal what it’s all supposed to mean. Jayne Armstrong Technicians
Unit Production
Jigsaw; John Kramer 3D
with a millionaire will leave her The filmmakers’ sanctimonious Jim Gilson
Costas Mandylor Managers 2nd Unit/Visual Effects:
a new foal with a strong legacy. tendencies don’t play well with the Susan McNamara
Detective Mark Hoffman Distributor Joe Martens
Betsy Russell Lronsgate UK Ignoring her family for huge story either - Lane’s ‘little lady’ is Bill Johnson
Key Grips
Jill Tuck motivated primarily by having to pay 2nd Unit/Visual Effects: William 'Bear' Raul
stretches, she struggles to pay the
Sean Patrick Flanery 8,079 ft -1-0 frames Bill Johnson
millions of dollars of inheritance tax 2nd Unit:
Bobby Dagan farm’s taxes by selling sire shares Production DougCowden
Cary Qwes in the new colt and hiring a trainer on her parents’ expansive Virginia Co-ordinators
2nd Unit/Visual Effects:
Doctor Lawrence Gordon farm after they die (Scott Glenn sleeps Robert Mazaraki
Dean Armstrong and jockey for it. Her lawyer Kim Heath
Kentucky Unit:
Cale husband back home isn’t happy through his role as the father), boiling Visual Effects
Allison Furgal
Chad Donella down Secretariat’s record-breaking Supervisor
and her kids miss her, but Chenery 2nd Unit/Visual Effects: Ray McIntyre
Gibson
presses on and begins racing the ascension to a matter of cash, debts Tracy Kettler Visual Eff^s by
Gina Holden
paid and profits made. Keep this basic Production
Joyce Dagan horse, called Secretariat, which Pixel Magic
Accountant
Chester Bennington
starts to win. A mouth abscess sets framework in mind while the film Special Effects
Evan Donald Walker Supervisor:
the animal back, but not for long: indulges in scene after scene of prove- Location Managers
Rebecca Marshall Raul Lombardi
Suzanne Secretariat breaks recordsand and the
it-to-the-naysayers resolve Peter J. Novak Co-ordinator:
Naomi Snieckus David Wolfson
eventually wins the Triple Crown. horse-as-Holy-Ghost mysticism, and John Milinac
Nina 2nd Unit:
a callow hypocrisy cannot help but

82 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
Art Directors James Cromwell realm of spectacle that Sk};line is most
Naaman Marshall
Kentucky Unit:
i Ogden
Scott Glenn
Phillips
Skyline impressive, boasting more than 900
VFX that bring to life a full-scale assault
Slackistan
Craig Jackson I
Chris Chenery
Set Designers j
Kevin Connolly Directors: Colin Strause, on LA by an array of imaginatively United Kingdom 2010
Darrell Wight Nack
Bill
conceived and realised extraterrestrial
Alex McCarroll
I

EricLange
Greg Strause Director: Hammad Khan
creatures. The Brothers Strause have
Set Decorator I Andy Beyer With Eric Balfour, David Zayas, With Shahbaz Shigri, Aisha Linnea
Patrick Cassidy AJ Michalka done alien invasions before in their
I
Donald Faison, Brittany Daniel Akhtar, AN Rehman Khan
Property Masters Kate Tweedy directorial debut AVP: Alien vs. Predator
Certificate 15 92m 25s
I

David Gulick Mike Harding - Requiem (2007), but Skyline is a

2nd UnitA'isual Effects; EV Benjamin 1

Rob Chalk
I

Richard Fullerton
somewhat different monster. Entirely Though filmmaking in Pakistan
Construction I
Robert Kleburg “You haven’t changed one bit,” says independently produced on a relatively is in decline - thanks to the lack
Co-ordinator Tim Ware Elaine (Scottie Thompson) to her small budget (about $10 million) and of government support and the
Tom Jones Jr John Galbreath
I
boyfriend Jarrod (Eric Balfour) as they shot ‘in house’ in and around Greg overwhelming popularity of movies
Costume Designer Nestor Serrano
Michael T. Boyd I Pancho Martin look at photographs of him clowning Strause’s own Marina del Rey from the mighty Bollywood machine
Costume Supervisor Keith Austin around with his long-time best friend condominium, it shows humankind’s over the border - every once in a while
Beverley M. Woods Lafitte Pincay
\
Terry (Donald Faison). Elaine is hopeless struggles against virtually the country produces a gem. One thinks
Make-up Department Drew Roy
Head Seth Hancock
pregnant, and wants Jarrod to become unstoppable forces, all unfolding before of Nasir Khan’s documentary Made
Michael Mills Carissa Capobianco a responsible father (‘That’s why |
a room with a view. First-time writers in Pakistan (2009); Shoaib Mansoor’s
Key Make-up Artist Sarah Tweedy you’re my hero,” she comments as Joshua Cordes and Liam O’Donnell Khuda Kay Liye (2007), which looked
Richard Redlefsen Sean Cunningham
Hair Department Head Chris Tweedy
Jarrod helps a mother with her airline may sketch their characters with at the rift between liberals and

Kim Santantonio Jacob Rhodes baggage), but Jarrod is equally attracted minimal nuance but they show plenty fundamentalists; and Omar Khan’s
Key Hairstylist John Tweedy by an invitation to join Terry’s visual- of genre savvy, mixing up ideas from delightful Pakistani take on the zombie-
Melizah Anguiano Graham McTavish e^cts crew in LA and the playboy Independence Day (1996), Signs (2002), horror genre Zibahkhana (2007). The
Schmidt Earl Jansen
Main/End Title Tom Foley lifestyle that comes with it. Thankfully The War of the Worlds (loos), Cloverfield latter merits a passing reference in
Sequerrce Jimmy Gaffney the sort of intervention required to (2008), District g (2009) and even The Slackistan, Pakistan’s first ever slacker
Picture Mill Grant Whitacre bring Jarrod’s dilemma into sharp focus Brain from Planet Arous (1957), while movie and a breath of fresh air for
Featured Cello Paul Feliciano
arrives, afew hours later, in the form propelling their horrifically bleak the country’s film industry.
Steve Erdody Fbrry Smith
Orchestrations obnoxious owner of an apocalyptic alien invasion - and vision to its bitter end. It is difficult In sharp contrast to the terrorism,
Benoit Groulx Tom Clark afterfewer than three days of large-scale I to imagine where the sequel (already natural disasters and cricket scandals
Soundtrack CBS anchor abductions, perilous close encounters slated for 201 2) can possibly go. that usually dominate media coverage
"Silent Night" - AJ Ken Strunk
Michalka: ‘Til Take You Dr Manuel Gilman
and last-ditch aerial dogfights, the I The aliens’ modus operandi for of the country, Slackistan centreson a
There" -The Staple Jazz Undy human race will have been mostly invasion becomes a metaphor for the group of idle rich twentysomethings
Singers: "Oh Happy fanl reduced to food for thought, while film itself, which dazzles viewers into whiling away their time in Islamabad.
Day" - Edwin Hawkins Michael Guthrie
Jarrod may well have changed for good. |
sitting back and enjoying the amazing In the best tradition of mumblecore
Singers: “The Longest fan 2
Goodbye" - Scott Cullen Wallace Like Terry and his LA cohort, |
light show, possibly at the expense of movies, nothing much happens, but the
Nickoley. Jamie Dunlap: Che wannabe brothers Colin and Greg Strause also their own brains. Resistance is futile. film engaging thanks to the immense
"I Am Free" by Randall
Wallace. Nick Glennie-
Mike Battaglia
derby official
run a VFX firm (called Hydraulx),
1

^ Anton Bitel
is

likeability of the lead actors, who seem

Smith - Nick Glennie- Tony Renaud which has contributed to films such Credits for this film were unavailable to be playing themselves. British
Smith:"My Old retx)rter 1 as Avatar, Iron Man 2 and The Curious at the time of going to press and will Pakistani director Hammad Khan (who
Kentucky Home" - The Jennifer Trier Case ofBenjamin Button - and it is in the be published in the February issue works BBFC, and who has also
for the
University of Kentucky receptionist
edited, co-produced and co-written the
Wildcat Marching Band: VVynn Reichert
Not How Fast, It’s
"It's pastor film) casts an almost documentary eye
Not How Far" by Randall Tim Layden on the capital city, and is more
Wallace. Nick Glennie- reporter 2
interested in the ebb and flow of his
Smith - Andrew Nack
Bill

Who You characters’ lives and their existentialist

Wallace: " It's 3
reporter
Are” by Randall Wallace Pamela Pryor angst than in providing any dramatic
- AJ Michalka waitress spikes. Unemployed, overprivileged
Sound Designer Kate Ward
friends Hasan, Sherry and Saad drift
Benjamin L. Cook Belmont guest
Sound Mixers Andrew Wallace aimlessly; they speak mostly in English
David Daniel Belmont singer with American accents because they
2nd UnitA/isual Effects: Rusty Hendrickson
went to the American school in
Tim Cooney burger joint cook
Sound Mixing Michael Boyd
Islamabad. Hasan (Shahbaz Shigri),
Kevin O’Connell golfer 1 who is also the film’s narrator, has some
Beau Borders Michael Mills vague notion of being a filmmaker but
Supervising Sournd golfer 2
isn’t motivated enough to pick up his
Editors Albert Duhon
Kami Asgar berated stable hand camera until the end of the film, and
Sean McCormack Audrey Scott even then does so in desultory fashion.
Stunt Co-ordinators Penny
6-year-old
The reality of everyday life in
Freddie Hice Slaid Parker
New York taxi driver Pakistan impinges on the protagonists’
Rusty Hendrickson
Technical Adviser JoeChrest Apocalypse now: Donald Faison, Eric Balfou lives only through the occasional
Leonard Lusky sports desk anchor newspaper headline or a muted
Consultants Jason Schwartz
Penny Chenery SYNOPSIS Marina del Ray, Los Angeles, the present In toAvn to celebrate his television in the background. The
spectator
William Nack Reid Chemer friend Terry’s birthday. New Yorker Jarrod is tom between news that his girlfriend characters’ westernised, cocooned
Animal Handlers Hank Goldberg bubble is, however, an increasingly
Elaine is pregnant and an offer to join Terry’s successful VFX company. Early in
Rusty Hendrickson Dick Jerardi
uneasy one, and as the film progresses,
Rex ^terson John McClain the morning after Terry’s party, a full-scale alien invasion begins. Aurora-like blue
Mark Warrack Jay Privman mesmerising onlookers before drawing them up into
lights fall out of the sky, Khan creates an atmosphere of growing
Lisa Brown hack pack and flightless
spacecraft hovering overhead, while smaller, squid-like flying craft frustration among his characters.
Scout Hendrickson
behemoths use powerful tentacles to mop up those left behind and fight off any The Islamabad ennui celebrated in
Dolby Digital/DTS/
resistance.
the film gradually leads to a sense that
CAST SDDS
Colour by/us prints Watching events unfold from Terry’s high-rise condominium, Jarrod, Elaine, something must snap, at least for Hasan,
Diane Lane by
Terry, Terry’s girlfriend Candice and assistant Denise decide to flee to Terry’s yacht,
who visits the underprivileged parts
Penny Chenery DeLuxe
but they are attacked as they try to leave the building. With Denise dead and Terry of the city and begins to take an interest
John Malkovich International prints
Lucien Laurin Technicolor taken, Jarrod, Elaine and Candice return to Terry’s apartment, joined by concierge in his servants’ lives as a means to
Dylan Walsh [2.35:1] Oliver. They witness a hopeless dogfight between the US Air Force and the alien
gain inspiration for his filming. Escape
Jack Tweedy
ships, which ends in a nuclear strike that merely angers the invading force while to the west - in the form of family
Dylan Baker Distributor
Hollis Chenery flattening much of LA. When Candice is drawn up by the light, Oliver chooses to based abroad - is an option for the
Buena Vista
Mai^o Martindale International (UK) blow himself and a behemoth up rather than be abducted. Meanwhile on the protagonists, but the only one to
Miss Ham take this route is Hasan’s crush Aisha,
building’s rooftop, Jarrod and Elaine have several violent clashes with aliens before
Nelsan Ellis 11,057 ft +11 frames
Eddie Sweat being drawn up into the sky in one another’s embrace. who moves to Boston and marries
Otto Thonvarth Elaine wakes to see Jarrod’s brain being removed from his body. She screams as an American Pakistani.
Ronnie Turcotte
her pregnant belly is probed; a monster recently fuelled with Jarrod’s brain leaps to By the end of the film, Khan
Fred Dalton Thompson
her defence. subtly leaves the viewer with the
Bull Hancock
feeling that the bubble is on the

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 83
1
 Films
purposelessness - marks a turning

Somewhere point. All the time that

sitting aimlessly
Johnny spends
with a bottle of beer,
USA/United Kingdom/ inert and inured, or drifting through

Italy/Japan 2010 parties without any attempt to engage

with other people, or abandoning
Director: Sofia Coppola
himself to easy sexual encounters,
With Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, he is a difficult character to warm
Chris Pontius, Michelle Monaghan to. Here Somewhere is like a Bret
Certificate 15 97m 35s Easton Ellis novel without the teeth.
But with Cleo (winningly incarnated
A car races endless circuits of a by Elle Fanning, a child actress
desert track, twin pole-dancers pivot previously seen in David Fincher’s
obligingly around their poles, an The Curious Case ofBenjamin Button)
1 1 -year-old skates elegant pirouettes comes a spark that carries the film:
on an ice rink - Sofia Coppola’s her maturity and freshness cut
Somewhere\s a film going round in through the tone of laconic self-pity,
circles. Its axis is Johnny Marco reviving flagging interest in the
(Stephen Dorff), a movie star viewer as much as in her father.
convalescing with a broken wrist at The parent-daughter relationship
famed West Hollywood hotel Chateau feels so truthfully yet unsentimentally
Marmont. His life is a treadmill of observed that the leap to suppose
press conferences, makeup sessions, Cleo is drawn from Coppola’s own
disorienting foreign award ceremonies life, passing from hotel to hotel in
and near-daily assignations with the company of a famous father, is
Privilege: Zainab Omar, Osman Khalid Butt concupiscent strangers. inevitable. From ‘Life without Zoe’,
Early on, Johnny lies in his hotel the section she scripted for her dad
^ verge of bursting and the complications Uzair Jaswal
slacker 1
Farah Khan
party girl 1
room watching the pole-dancers writhe to direct for the portmanteau film
of quotidian life in Pakistan will through their routine at the foot of New York Stories (1989), via Lost in
Salahuddin Issa Zahra Raza
- jaded all the way
^ Namancome
inevitably surging in.
Ramachandran
slacker?
Adnan Malik
0\wais
party girl 2
Nadia Rahman Khan
party girl 3
his bed, until
down to his libido - he falls asleep.
Translation (2003) and Marie Antoinette
(with Versailles as the ultimate in
The comic disparity between the five-star luxury), Coppola has returned
Qasim Ali Haaris Aziz Qureshi
CREDITS "Welcome to
Prince' Qasim party guy 1
dancers’ energetic titillations and repeatedly to hotel settings for their
Videogame Island"
Directed by
I

"
Zainab Omar Salman Ahmed Johnny’s recumbent nonchalance sense of rootlessness, glamour and
Leaving Videogame
Hammad Khan Miss Baig Shaukat begins to pall as the extended scene anonymity. Yet any complaints that
Island" "Into TDast
Produced by Gohar Hussain party guy 2
Squares". “The Big plays out. Hoton the heels of an Coppola is here simply rejigging
Shandana Ayub
I
Hasan’s father Hammad Khan
Bubble" - Mole: "Sorry” opening which, filmed from a fixed Lost in Translation in a western setting
Hammad Khan Hasan Bruun Akhtar offended man at
"Whatevers". "Drunken
Written by
I

Denial" "Cincode
Zara's brother hotspot camera, shows Johnny’s car speeding which Johnny
(a central section in
Shandana Ayub
I
Shahana Ahmed Fawad Ali
round and round the racetrack and takes Cleo to Milan,where various
Mayo" "Get Vbur Gun" -
Hammad Khan Aisha’smother Zeeshan’sfnendl
The Fatsumas: "Itchy"
Robin Nur Zafar Iqbal
thus in and out of the static shot, such cross-cultural miscommunications
Directors of
"King of Self: "No
Photography
I

Sharif Zeeshan's friend 2 sustained moments of minimal action ensue, is notable for especial water-
Reason Now" - Sajid
Hammad Khan Abbas Zaidi Khurram Malik reveal Coppola absorbing the treacle- treading) are offset by the notion
and Zeeshan: "Original
Adnan Malik Khurram Sheikh Pindiguyl
I
Idea" "On the Highway"
Noman Mahmood Hafiz
slow tropes of contemporary arthouse that this may be the director’s most
Edited by
by Hammad Khan - cinema - a shift of gear after the formal personal film to date, the one closest
Hammad Khan
j

Babar Pindiguy?
Hammad Khan:
"Islamad Part ir- Adil
Mani'sboys Bilal opulence of Marie Antoinette (2006). to her own charmed experience.
©Big Upstairs Films Fida Zara's driver
Omar: "Saari Raat But the pole-dancing episode, which Somewhere ends in the middle
Executive Producers
I
Ghulam ‘Johnny’ Robin Nur
Jaaga"- Noori: "Late will be repeated with scant variation of nowhere, with a suggestion of
Menhaj Huda Mustafa Osman Khalid Butt
Bbomer"- Zerobridge
Stella Nwimo
I
Hasan’s servants ‘Hijra' transvestites and at similar leisure a few scenes Johnny’s escape from the gilded cage
Sound Recordist
Associate Producer
I
Mohammad Aziz Nadia Rahman Khan hence, establishes a problem of - a would-be cathartic climax that
Andrew Daynes
I
Hamza girl at rendezvous 1
Adnan Malik Dubbing Mixer empathy - how can an audience be fails to pack any punch, for rarely
Post Producer Mir Mohammad Pashmina Ahmed
Tom Parsons
Shabbir girl at rendezvous 2
expected to sympathise fully with has there been a character for whom
Louise Stewart
Assistant Director
I

ice cream wallah Ahmed Shahzad the ennui of a character successful flight has seemed so available. But
Nadia Rahman Khan I
CAST Mohammad Amjad video store clerk enough to have anything (and anyone) viewers who write off Coppola’s
Wardrobe/Make-up Shahbaz Shigri cake wallah Christian community
within his grasp? It’s a problem film as the whingeing of the
Pashmina Ahmed Pashmina Ahmed of F-6 Colony
Hasan
Soundtrack
I
Sabah Nawaz Somewhere spend the rest of its privileged miss a delicately affecting
Aisha Linnea Akhtar
"Chakul" "Par Desi" Aisha
telecom chicks In Cobur duration seeking to overcome. portrait of a maturing, still pre-teen
"Ayesha". "Layla" - The Rehman Khan Amna Abbasi [L78:l]
Ali In this respect, the appearance daughter fitting in and around the
Kominas: "Can You Sheryar ‘Sherry'
Anam Haider Part-subtitled

Fly?" "The Dream of All Fatima Sultan of Johnny’s young daughter Cleo gaps in her mollycoddled father’s
Shahana Khan Khalil
My Life", "Sound of Zara
Maryam Khan Distributor and her display on the ice - another routine, too spirited to share or
I

Peace and Love" - Osman Khalid Butt Qurat Ul Ain Jehangir Mara Pictures protracted sequence but this time settle for his got-it-all apathy.
Kabul Dreams: "Untitled Sana Khan
I Saad without the underlying dread of Samuel Wigley
Demo". "The Day Song" Zainab Zaman
I
Khalid ‘Vicky’ Saaed
"Racing Downwards" - Mam high school girls
"Pink Adil Omar
Vfellicate; "Intro". Rafay Alam
rapper at party
SYNOPSIS Los Angeles, the present. Film star Johnny Marco falls and breaks
Moving Objects" Zeeshan
I
his wrist during a shoot. While recuperating he stays at Chateau Marmont,
an exclusive Hollywood hotel. Identical twin pole dancers perform for him
SYNOPSIS Islamabad, Pakistan, the present. Friends Hasan, Sheryar (‘Sherry’) in his room. He attends a press conference, a photo call and a party, all without
and Saad are unemployed twentysomethings from privileged families who while enthusiasm. He falls asleep during sex with a woman he has met at the party.
away their days driving around the city in a borrowed Mercedes and visiting video Johnny takes his i i-year-old daughter Cleo to her ice-skating practice and
libraries and ice-cream parlours. They meet frequently with Aisha, for whom watches her graceful movements. Later, his estranged wife drops Cleo off to stay
Hasan has feelings, and Zara, who has a series of unsuitable boyfriends. All five with Johnny at the hotel for a while. The pair spend time together at the hotel,
grew up together and went to the same university. To fund his expensive tastes. along with a childhood friend of Johnny’s. Gradually it seems that Cleo is having
Sherry often borrows money from former classmate Mani. Mani, who is rich but a reviving influence on her father.
not part of the friends’ clique, loans Sherry the money in order to buy into his Cleo’s mother tells Johnny that she needs more time alone, so Johnny is forced
social circle. When Mani eventually calls in the loan. Sherry doesn’t have the means to take his daughter with him on a trip to Milan to promote a new film and collect
to repay it. The friends decide to confront Mani but are beaten up by his henchmen. an award. During a sleepless night in an Italian hotel, they order a midnight feast.
Aisha decides to move to Boston and marry an American Pakistani. Hasan is When Cleo is asleep, Johnny creeps out of their room for a tryst with a fellow guest.
devastated but supports her decision. He has some ideas of being a filmmaker Back in the US, Johnny and his daughter spend time together in Las Vegas.
but hasn’t touched his camera in months. For the first time in his life, he takes an They then take a helicopter to get Cleo to summer camp. At the moment of
interest in his servants’ lives and visits the poorer quarter of the city to see how the parting, Johnny apologises for not being around for her in the past, but his
underprivileged live. Aisha leaves for Boston. Hasan decides to take a break and visit words are drowned out by the sound of the helicopter. Returning to Chateau
his brother in New York. En route to the airport he changes his mind, returns home, Marmont, Johnny takes his Ferrari for a drive out of Los Angeles; on a desert road,
picks up his camera and begins filming his servants going about their daily chores. he gets out and begins to walk, abandoning the car.

84 Sight & Sound January 2011

1 |
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 Films
CREDITS Italy Unit:
CAST Ferruccio Calamari
Piero Fabbri Milan VIP handler
Directed b^/
Visual Effects Stephen Dorff Antonio Bracciani
Sofia Coppola Supervisor: Johnny Marco Milan airport policeman
Producers Syd Dutton Elle Fanning Davide Borella
G.Mac Brown Producer Oeo hotel manager, Milan
Roman Coppola Scott Tinter
Chris Pontius Nunzio Alfredo ‘Pupi’
Sofia Coppola Art Directors Sammy D'Angieri
VWitten Shane Valentino Erin Wasson Pupi
Sofia Copula Italy Unit:
party girl 1 Jo Champa
Director of Andrea Rosso Alexarxlra Williams Pupi'swife
Photography Set Decorator party girl 2 Greta Zamparini
Harris Savides Fainche MacCarthy Nathalie Fay Pupi'sPR
Rim Editor Property Masters party girl 3 Stefano Fiorentino
Sarah Flack Ritchie Kremer Kristina Shannon young rich man
Production Designer Italy Unit:
Bambi Laura Chiatti
Anne Ross Walter Saro Karissa Shannon Sylvia
Music Score Costume Designer Cindy Gioigia Surina
Phoenix I Stacey Battat John Prudhont Italian TV reporter
Costume Supervisor chateau patio waiter Simona Ventura
©Somewhere LLC Ratnaa McLaughlin Ruby Corley Nino Frassica
I

Production Companies Make-up Supervisor patio girl Telegatto hosts

Focus Features presents Darlene Jacobs Angela Lindvall Maurizk) Nichetti
I

in association with Path4 Make-up/Hair blonde in Mercedes Telegatto award recipient

Distribution, Medusa Italy Unit:
Maryna Linchuk Valeria Marini
Film, Tohokushinsha an i

Milena DiGirolamo Meghan Collison Telegatto speaal guest

I

AmencanZoetrope Carmen Amaro Jessica Miller Paola Turani

production Old Age Make-up vampire models Marica Pellegrinelli
Italy Unit Production Designer Lala Sloatman Telegatto girls
Service Company: Some Jordu Schell Layla Martina Chiriaco
of Us Hair Supervisor Renee Roca Jennifer lacono
Executive Producers Johnny Villanueva ioe skating instructor Angela Lanotte
j

Francis Ford Coppola Hair Stylists Aur^lien Wiik Simona Lucia Tauro
Raul Rassam i PatnaaGundlach French guy Telegatto dancers
Fred Roos Italy Unit:
Lauren Hastings Marco Gandolf Vannini
i

for Some of Us: Jack Abernethy pretty girl

Italian limo driver
Michele Anzalone Title Design Amanda Anka Philip Pavel Humour by-pass: John E. Regan
Roberta Senesi Peter Miles Marge hotel manager
Producer Adcftional Music Ellie Kemper Romulo Laki
Italy Unit:
William Storkson Clare Romulo home to mum and dad with a wrinkle
Spiderhole
I

Jordan Stone Brian Gattas Damian Delgado

Soundtrack of their pretty upturned noses.
Line Producer "Love like a Sunset Part r studio PR man Victor
Youree Henley Randa Walker That interpretation would, however,
"Love like a Sunset Part Laura Ramsey
Unit Production ir - Phoenix; "My Hero" eager PR woman naked blonde with sailor Ireland/Canada 2010 be generous indeed. For there’s no secret
Manager - Foo Fighters: "1 Thing" Michelle Monaghan cap to Spiderhole’s ideological slant: the
G.Mac Brown
I

-Amerie, contains a Rebecca Nathalie Love

Director: Daniel Simpson
film is a flagrant stab at cashing in on
Production Manager sample of "Oh Calcutta
"
Sylvia Desrochers young wasted girl With Emma Griffiths Malin,
Italy Unit: - The Meters; "Cool" - Rebecca’s publicist the notoriety and box-office clout of
Roberta Christopher James
Caitlin Keats
Reuben Henry Biggs, Amy Noble
Isaja
Gwen Stefani: "Love chateau lobby guest a genre with little to say but ‘show me
Production Theme from Kiss” - Kiss; Taylor David Jean Thomas Certificate 18 81m 22s
Co-ordinators
I

press photographer the money’. Spiderhole was produced

"Look" - Sebastien casino croupier
Syndey Huynh "Smoke Gets in
Tellier;
Silvia Bizio
Peter McKeman in 2009, so the visual and thematic
Italy Unit:
Your Eyes" - Bryan Ferry; Italian journalist
helicopter pilot If you wanted to be generous to Daniel confluences with Tom Six’s Human
Patrizia Roletti "Gandhi Fix" "Massage Noel De Souza Patrick McKernan
Location Managers
I

Music” by William
Stephenson Crossley I Storkson - William
Italy Unit:
Storkson; "So Lonely"
I
Indian journalist
LisaLu
- Chinese journalist
Simpson’s ultra-low-budget British take Centipede (a maniacal medic, an isolated
helicopter ground safety
CX:. Sheffield on torture pom, you could call it a neat house, a female lead whose ultimate
woman getting haircut comment on contemporary politics. fate suggests that hope no longer has

Sergio Devidovich The Fblice; "20th Alexander Nevsky Ray Garcia

Post-production Russian journalist Four students, reduced to squatting, a place in contemporary horror) are
Century Boy" -T. Rex; parking valet
Supervisor "Che si fa" -Valeria AidaTakla-O'Reilly have their bodies rather than their fairenough. But there’s something so
Stuart MacPhee "Teddy Bear" - Egyptian pumalist
Marini; [uncredited] budgets slashed by a member of the humourless about Spiderhole- and so
Assistant Directors Romulo; "I'll Try Anything Emanuel Levy Benicio Del Toro
1st: Rod Smith
I

Israeli journalist
middle-class establishment (one with schematic - that it can’t help but feel
I
Once" -The Strokes celebrity
2nd: Joe Roddey Sound Designer HJ. Park and the
links to the health services likeit was run off quickly to capitalise
Italy Unit Korean journalist
I
Richard Beggs Dolby Dtgital/DTS armed forces, what’s more), making on the Zeitgeist. Its eye-gouging
1st: Jordan Stone Sound Mixer Jordu Schell In Colour
2nd: Franco Basaglia Joey Rocket it a potentially excoriating critique centrepiece smacks of Jeepers Creepers
SusumuTokunow Prints by
without the camp; its villain makes
I

Script Supervisor Re-recordir>g Mixers Jack Firman Jr Technicolor of hipster culture’s exoticisation
Jayne-Ann Teriggren Richard Beggs SPFX make-up artists [L85:l] of working-class life. For make no Centipedes Dr Heiter look like a well-
Casting RoyWaldspurger lo Bottoms
Courtney Bright receptionist
mistake, these students are middle rounded psychological portrait; its
Supervising Sound Distributor
Nicole Daniels Editors Paul Greene Universal Pictures class through and through, from repeated shots of a porcelain mask and
Italy Unit: Ron the masseur UK & Eire
Richard Beggs International their cut-glass accents to their its stereotyped sexualities (the alpha
Luisa Pacchetti Michael Kirchberger Eliza Coupe
Camera Operator
I

hotel room neighbour

mobile phones to the fact that, when male, the wimp, the tramp, the virgin)
Stunt Co-ordinator 8,781 ft -HM frames
seem to reference any number of horror
I

Hams Savides Robert Nagle Nicole Trunf io considering their options, they are
I

Gaffers brunette beauty

I
Telegatto Consultant bikini
able to dismiss the possibility of going classics yet serve only to underline how
Chris Culliton Italy Unit;
Tim Starks
I

Italy Unit:
Daniele Soragni LAX VIP services
Mary McNeal
Felice Guzzi
SYNOPSIS London, the present. A news bulletin announces that the bodies
Key Grips airline rep
Jamie Lagerhausen who disappeared 18 years ago, have been found. Daisy
of Daisy Gregg’s parents,
is still missing.
The same day, art student Molly and friends Luke, Toby and Zoe break into
a derelict house with the intention of squatting. Armed with tools and torches,
they settle in for the night, celebrating with a bottle of vodka. Next day they wake,
sick and groggy, to discover that their tools, and their phones, are missing and that
the doors to the house have been soldered shut. They find bloodstained clothes
and a sinister waiting room.
A mysterious gas fills the room and the students pass out. When they wake,
Toby is missing. Luke finds a concealed door to another room, with human remains
scattered around it. Fearing it is Toby, Zoe ventures in and is captured by a stranger
clad in white operating garb. Tied to a gurney, she witnesses the stranger cut out
Toby’s eye before turning to her with a hacksaw.
Luke and Molly discover a purse belonging to Daisy Gregg. Attacked by the
white-clad man, they bludgeon him to death, only to discover that it is Toby.
The stranger amputates Zoe’s leg, then seizes Luke.
Finally, the stranger captures Molly. After a tussle she escapes and climbs
through a secret door to the adjoining house. Here she discovers that the stranger’s
father was a famous surgeon, mugged and dismembered while he was forced
to watch. As Molly is about to flee, the stranger catches her and throws her in
a locked room with the now adult Daisy Gregg. Daisy, who has become a feral
cannibal, attacks Molly.
Going round in circles: Stephen Dorff

86 Sight
I
& Sound |
January 2011
inadequate it is by comparison. True, old schools, a fantasy that her nephew Balderelli family M. Ladaux

Spiderhole is set in a locked house,

but it’s a film that goes nowhere.
The Thorn - with the aid of bluescreen - is able
to make delightfully real. Only here
Viviane Bastide
Henri Bee
GabrielleBell
Georges Ladaux
Noelle Lapize
Francis Lapize
All of which would be disappointing
enough, given that Simpson has a keen
in the Heart do we intuit that Suzette’s teaching
may have been other than ordinary.
Denis Bertaux
Denis Bertavy
Michel Le Valdeyron
Didier Lebois
Denise Berthez^ne Guillaume Le Bras
eye for framing, colour and texture: France 2009 The grist for Gondry’s whimsy Francis Bertot Paul Lemaire
the film certainly looks like the lovechild
Director: Michel Gondry comes from touching on the strained Gerard Bertrand j
Th^r^ Libourel
of Klimt and Bosch. But worse is to relationship between Suzette and her Pierre Bertrand Philippe Libourel
Lucie Blanc Nelson Lombard
come with the final twist, which troubled son Jean-Yves, who partly
Nathalie Boucknooghe Madeleine Macq
shoehorns in a nasty subplot seemingly Perhaps the most resonant, terrifying blames his mother for his emotional Mathis Boucknooghe Alain Martin
j

inspired by the real-life cases of Josef scenes in Michel Gondry’s film instability and claims that she initially Andr4 Boudes i Mathieu Maurin
Fritzl and Natascha Kampusch. It’s work to date are the sequences in kept his father’s death from him. Marie-Therfese Boudes Marc Messager
Yori Bouisseren ValerieMessager
not a crime, of course, to put such Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Gondry doesn’t shy away from dredging Tony Bouisseren j
Luc Messager
real-life events to artistic use; inspired (2004) in which Jim Carrey’s character up hurt on both sides, and you wonder Isabelle Bouisseren Messager family
by the same material, the novelist fights against his memories being how these painful scenes play when Mr Boyer Raphael MinkxJ-
Denise Boyer Choquet
Emma Donoghue has produced a gradually deleted from his brain; we later see the family watching
R4gis Calazel Ludovic Mongnoux
compassionate if flawed work in so it is understandable why Gondry the rushes en masse. For the outsider, Georgette Calazel Vanessa Mongrxxjx
I

Room, as has Giorgos Lanthimos should want to make a film about these raw, unresolved tensions would Yohan Carter Yvette Navarro
with Dogtooth, while Ulrich Seidl his septuagenarian aunt, Suzette. have made a more compelling focus Marine Causse I
Claude Navarro
Karine Causse Jean-Michel Navarro
is rumoured to be working on a A low-key divertissement Sifter big-budget than the aunt’s trips down memory
Mireille Cavagna Virginie Nazon
documentary on the Fritzl case. But fantasies. The Thom in the Heart is an lane. Samuel Wigley Cayius family Mme Ollier
Seidl’s film will undoubtedly have a attempt to preserve on film the much Lydie Chabal i Guillaume Parisot
Benoit Chaffrat Romain Parisot
great deal more to say on the matter, loved matriarch of his extended family, CREDITS Stylist
FbrenceJamois Romain Chambon Florence Parisot
with more sensitivity, and frankly can’t both providing a warm tribute to her Directed!:^ Thierry Chamban Tbnin Passet
Titles
fail to be more harrowing. Cynical while she’s still around to appreciate Michel Gondry Liliane Chartre L6oPasset
Partizanlab;
exploitation, thy name is Spiderhole. it, and bottling the memory of her
Produced by Mathieu Betand Anthony Choquet Passet family
Geonges Bermann Soundtrack Roger Cinq Enzo Pidet
Catherine Wheatley for the ages.
Written by
"My Lie F.', "Comme un Comou Julia Deborah Pidet
Like most home-movie attempts Michel Gondry Mme Comte Mme Pidet
enfent” "Don’t Look
CREDITS Sound Design/Editing to capture family however,
life, Director of
Back" - Spleen: Christelle Cuvillier Guy Piq
Ben Swarbnck Photography Frangoise Daux Monique Piq
the results are likely to be rigidly "Surface Tension”
Directed by Annelise Noronha Jean-Louis Bompoint Manon Daux Jean-Louis Pontalier
Ensemble HCD-
Simpson
Daniel uninvolving for non-Gondrys. The Editor Marie-Cedle Daux Jonathan Pouzens
Gavin Wheelahan Productions; "Epinel”
Produced 1:^ Rob Melamed film opens with a joke at the dinner Marie-Charlotte Moreau Melanie Delenne Isac Reilhan
"Epine 2" by Etienne
Patrick O’Neill Delenne family Florent Reilhan
Bill Hermans table in which Suzette can barely Gharry: "Well. Well.
Written ©Partizan Films Mr Denis Lucas Reilhan
Ryan McLamon Cornelius” - John
Simpson get the words out for laughing; an
Daniel
Sound Mixer Production Company Tilbury: "Le Petit Train Amaud Derroute Anne Reilhan
Director of
Alphonse A. Lanza appealing sense of conviviality is Partizan Films presents Samuel Dubail Hugo Reilhan
de la m^moire": "Under
Photography Sound Mixed by established but the sauerkraut story a film by Michel Gondry Emma Dubail Florent Reilma
the Elder” - Howard
Vinit Borrison Production Manager Romain Duffour Olivier Reiluan
Annelise Nononha is too garbled for us to share in it. It Skempton; "Little
Editors KhalidTahhar Patricia Durand Colette Richard
Ben Swarbrick Monsters” - Charlotte
Jeremiah Munge sets the tone for an intimate but opaque Production Supervisor Michel Etienne Jacques Robert
Gainsbourg; "Lonely
Johnny Megplos film which gives little explanation as Aur^lien Durand - Feist Thomas Ferrera-Pialot Gabrielle Roux
Production Designer CAST Lonely”
to who relates to whom, or why Suzette Post-production
Sound Recordists Claudine Finiels Catherine Sarran
DaithiMagner Emma Griffiths Malin Supervisor
Guillaume Le Bras Bernard Finiels Emma S^quier
Music is a worthwhile subject. I

Molly Kaine Jean-Gabriel Saint-Paul

Claire-Anne Largeron Seph Fraisse Brian Stavechny
Jason Cooper Reuben Henry Biggs Comprising interviews with family Director of Celine Gartayrade Irene Stephan
Sound Re-recording
Oliver Kraus Luke members and old acquaintances, and Photography Manon Gely Nadine Stessels
Frangois Loubeyre I

Amy Noble illustrated with grainy Super-8 footage. Animated Sequences; Supervising Sound Il4na Gely Francis Stessels
©Spiderhole Zoe Eric Vain Isabelle Gely Sandrinefrubert
Editor
Productions. Ltd. George Maguire The Thom in the Heart is broken into Super 8 Archives Gintrand Bemar
i

Etienne Vedrines
Laurent d'Herb^ourt
Production Toby chapters defined by place and time. Cameraman Giselle Giraud Ludovic Zanora
Companies John E. Regan Jean-Yves Gondry Raymonde Giraud
Each of these is introduced by stop- WITH
A Spiderhole production the captor Special Effects Sonia Gondry In Colour/Black and
in association with Moya
motion animated interludes featuring Sequence
Farrelly ‘Invisible Suzette Gondry Michel Gondry i
White
Magnet Film & Digital doctor a model train pulling into a new station Children’ Jean-VYes Gondry Pierre Gondry [1.66:1]
i

A Daniel Simpson film Kevin Hannaf in and finds Gondry’s aunt revisiting some Partizanlab: Sasha Allard Jules Gondry Subtitles
E)^utive Producers art schoolteacher Muriel Archambaud Allard family Frangois Gondry
Alan O'Sullivan
of the Cevennes villages where she
Malcolm George Animation Remi Andre Paul Gondry Distributor
Joanne O'Sullivan news reporter worked as a primary-school teacher. Valerie Person Lucas Andreo Nina Grignola Soda Pictures
I

Nick Sorbara Kevin Goodman By far the most enchanting scene is Additional Editing Laura Arjailles V4ronique Grignola
Kevin Hannaf in wailing room patient 1 Erika Barroche Bilo Guilleux French theatrical
one in which she brings ‘invisible Jean-Louis Arrigas I
title

Associate Producer Alphonse A. Lanza Mane-Pierre Frappier Ludovic Guillaume L’Epine dans le coeur
Sophie Balderelli
Vinit Borrison cloaks’ for the children of one of her
waiting room patient 2 Oonalbar Onscreen English
Unit Production Alanna Maharaj Evelyne Jacquemert- subtitle
j

Manager doctor’s receptionist Ollier Thom in the Heart

Patrick O’Neill Aoife Mahony Romain Jacquet
Post-production young Daisy Gregg Marc Jacquet
Supervisor Stephanie Tobin Denis Jaillet
Vinit Borrison older Daisy Gregg Teddy Julian
Assistant Director Petra Skodova Fabien Jouamo
1st: Pamela Cordeiro art class model Wissem Khaldi
Continuity Joanne O’Sullivan Nadia Khaldi
George Doyle Niamh Hennessey
B Camera Gary Brosnan
News Reporter Shoot Deirdre Mahony
Maurice O’Carroll Samuel Kemp SYNOPSIS A documentary
Gaffer/Key Grip Andreas Gomez portrait of filmmaker Michel
Sean Hearn Pizarro
Gondry’s septuagenarian aunt,
Visual Effects Osvaldo De Quandos
Redlab Laura O'Sullivan
Suzette Gondry, consisting of
Tinpot Liam Hewson interviews with her and other
Artjail Jerry Fitzgerald members of the extended family
Set Decorators Daniel Rkxdan
Steve Murray
filmed at their home in the
art class students
Daithi Marley Cevennes region. Suzette revisits
Props Master Dolby Digital many of the village primary schools
Kevin Goodman In Colour
Make-up/Make-up
where she worked as a teacher,
[2.35:1]
Effects and encounters some of her
Sam Sheehan Distributor former students, now adults. Her
Vocals on Fire Side Soda Pictures son Jean-Yves speaks of his mental
Song
Lucy Cooper breakdown, blaming his mother
7323 ft +0 frames
Guitar on Folk Song for exacerbating his emotional
William Dorey difficulties. The family watch
Soundtrack
the footage and joke about their
"Delirium”; "Bicycle
Ride”; "Van Journey” matriarch being a film star.
The insider The Thorn in the Heart’

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 87 1
 Films

Unstoppable
USA/United Kingdom/
Australia 2010
Director: Tony Scott
With Denzel Washington, Chris
Pine, Rosario Dawson, Kevin Dunn
Certificate 12A 98m 24s

Sometimes a film is literally the

biggest train set a boy ever had.
Tony Scott’s Unstoppable is something
of a throwback - unironic, but quietly
so - to the disaster-stroke-action movies
of pre-CGI yore. A runaway freight train
whose cargo includes deadly molten
phenol is heading for derailment on
an elevated bend - above a fuel depot,
what’s more - in downtown Stanton,
Pennsylvania. “We’re talking about
a missile the size of the Chrysler
Building,” says clear-headed yardmaster
Connie (Rosario Dawson), in the midst
of a slanging match with her bosses,
who put profits above public safety.
Only grizzled veteran driver Frank
(Denzel Washington) and his greenhorn
conductor Will (Chris Pine), whose
initial status-and-age-based antagonism
will be softened as their mutual trust
grows, can stop the unstoppable and Blue collar: Chris Pine, Denzel Washington
avert tragedy.
Gone are the mannerisms of mid- the BFI, announced not only the arrival piece with its depressed Rust Belt Chris Ciaffa Visual Effects

2000S Scott. Like his last runaway-train of a gifted action director, but one with setting, engagement with
and its
Rick Yom Supervisor
Jeff Kwatinetz Nathan McGuinness
movie. The Taking ofPelham 123 (2009), an interest in rendering subjective geographical space, moreover in Co-producers Visual Effects
called “square” by David Bordwell, experience on film. What seems to have a part of the US not often represented Adam Somner Asylum Visual Effects
Unstoppable is undoubtedly four- been substituted for that, certainly since on film, is what distinguishes it. SkipChaisson Additional:

•0^ Henry K. Miller LeeTrink Eye Spy Productions

cornered, give or take the odd squiggle; Enemy of the State (iggS), is an obsession Diane Sabatini Special Effects
but Scott has compensated for its lack with mimicking surveillance and Associate FVoducers Supervisor:
of unmotivated stock manipulation communications technology; but CREDITS except Brazil. Italy. Tom Moran John Frazier
Japan. Korea and Spain) Janice Pbiley Co-ordinator:
and random reframings by shooting whereas the new emphasis made Directed by ©TCF Hungary Film Unit FYoduction Joseph Pancake
what are probably his best suspense thematic sense in that film and others, Tony Scott Rights Exploitation Managers Art Directors
Produced by
sequences since Crimson Tide (199 5), here it just gets in the way. Too often we Limited Liability Eric McLeod Andrew Boughton
Julie Yorn Company. Twentieth
his first collaboration with Washington. watch Frank and Will’s acts of heroism Railroad Unit: Dawn Swiderski
Tony Scott Century Fox Film Scott Elias Julian Ashby
Then the righteous subordinate under with an inane newscaster’s commentary Mimi Rogers Corporation and Dune Production Set Designers
Gene Hackman, Washington is now - conveying the experience of watching Eric McLeod Entertainment III LLC (in Supervisors Gregory A.
Alex Young
the old hand, with Star Treks Chris the action unfold on TV - rather than Brazil, Italy. Japan. Jennifer Conroy Weimerskirch
Written by Korea and Spain) Railroad Unit: J. Andrew Chaintreuil
Pine as the upstart, fast rising within being put through the mill with them. Mark Bomback Production Scott Allen Logan Aaron Haye
the company because of his family’s The media hullabaloo and the Director of
Companies Production Set Decorator
Photography
influence in the union. Whereas the repeated shots of videophone-wielding Twentieth Century Fox Co-ordinator Rosemary Brandenburg
Ben Seresin
earlier film was a fairly balanced drama civilians lining the train’s route also presents in association Lisa Dietrick Property Master
nim Editors with Dune Supervising Location Eugene McCarthy
that resolved in favour of the by-the- rather undercut the putative threat Chris Lebenzon
Entertainment a Manager Construction
book younger officer. Unstoppable never posed by its cargo,and after a shameless Robert Duffy Prospect Park/Scott Janice Pbiley Co-ordinator
Production Designer
doubts the wisdom of experience. early scene in which a trainload of Free production Location Managers Dale DeStefani
Chris Seagers A Tony Scott film
Indeed, within the film’s Hawksian schoolchildren almost get into a smash- Julie Hannum Costume Designer
Music Produced in association Pennsylvania: Pfenny Rose
drama of trust among blue-collar up, there’s a slight deficiency in the Harry Gnegson-Williams with Ingenious Media James A. Mahathey Costume Supervisor
professionals - principally Connie more widespread danger that Connie’s Made in association Post-production Stacy M. Horn
©Twentieth Century Fox
and Frank - Pine’s character is an Chrysler Building line implies. Though with Big Screen Supervisor Department Head
Film Corporation and Productions Michael Tinger Make-up Artist
ornamental encumbrance most of a few more jokes wouldn’t have gone Dune Entertainment III
Executive Producers Assistant Directors Edouard F. Henriques III
the time, despite his billing. Connie, amiss, Unstoppabl^s moodiness is of a LLC (in all territories
1st: Adam Somner Key Make-up Artist
ensconced in a control room, has never 2nd: Eric Richard Lasko Diane Heller
Script Supervisor Tattoo Artist
met Frank but sides with him against SYNOPSIS Industrial Pennsylvania, the present. A negligent railway worker Julie Pitkanen Mark Mahoney
the suits, whose decision-making lets a driverless train laden with toxic chemicals escape his control. Yardmaster Casting Department Head Hair
process is corrupted by talk of stock Connie Hooper works with law-enforcement officials to clear the tracks ahead Denise Chamian Stylist

devaluation and costs, and who of it, and recommends to her superiors that the train be derailed before it reaches
Pittsburgh: Yolanda Toussieng
Donna Belajac Hair Designer
display an arrogant - crucially a populated area. Instead they attempt to land a marine on top of the engine by Aerial Director Danny Moumdjian
unprofessional - disdain for anything helicopter while slowing the train down from the front, but the operation goes of Photography Main Title/Graphic
their employees might have to say.
badly wrong.
David B. Nowell Design

Unstoppabl^s big air-punch moment Pursuit Arm Director Skip Film

Veteran rail engineer Frank Barnes, facing enforced retirement on half benefits, of Photography End Titles
isFrank and Chris telling them to is training hot-headed rookie Will Colson, who is preoccupied with marriage Brooks P. Guyer Scarlet Letters
shove it. But unlike Hackman’s problems. A tenderfoot mistake of Will’s puts the pair close to the runaway, and Camera Operators Additional Music

character in the earlier film, Frank Martin Sch^ Justin Burnett

Frank decides the only way to slow the train is to chase it in reverse gear, couple
John Skotchdopole Orchestrator
is no martinet, and respects different up and accelerate in the opposite direction. He has the support and guidance of Dann Moran Ladd McIntosh
kinds of knowledge. At the film’s Connie, who goes over the head of her boss. Mark Meyers Soundtrack
climax he and Connie take the advice Aerial: Scott C. Smith "Work" - Ciara featuring
Frank and Will get to the runaway train just before it hits a tight S-curve in
Steadicam Operator Missy Elliott; "Fox News
of a federal safety inspector, another the city of Stanton. Frank runs along the top of the train, braking cars individually, Mark Meyers Service Theme" by
stranger, played by Kevin Corrigan.
but meets an obstacle, and the train only narrowly avoids derailment. Finally Will Chief Lighting Robert Israel; "Country
Scott’s very first short, the American Technician Boy” -Alan Jackson;
jumps on to a jeep riding alongside the train, which takes him parallel with the
Civil War story One of the Missing engine. He manages to jump back aboard and bring the train to a halt. Frank and
Jack English "Ride of the Valkyries"
Key Grip by Richard Wagner;
(1968), produced - the interest must be Will meet Connie face to face; Will is reunited with his wife. "Driving My Young Life
Thomas Gibson
declared - by this magazine’s publisher.

88 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
Away” -Wayne Alicia Murton
Hancock; "National
Guard Part 1"
"Power
teacher
David Flick Waiting for CREDITS UPDATE
Struggle” "Predator train engineer
Arrival" from A VP/?
Alien vs Predator
JeffWincott
Jesse. Will’s brother
‘‘Superman” The reviews of these films were published
in our December issue but credits were
Requiem by Brian Tyler; Nathan Hollabaugh
- Director: Davis Guggenheim unavailable at the time of going to press.
"Juice (Live Mix)" young cop
GMS Rebecca Harris Certificate PG 111m 8s We are still waiting for credits for Adrift
Production Sound Pauline and Jackass 3D.
Mixer Mike Clark
William B. Kaplan news reporter 4
Sound Mixing William Ward III
American moviegoers have recently
The Edge of Dreaming
Kevin O’Connell reporter 2 received a slate of documentary
Beau Borders Jennifer Boresz diagnoses for what ails their Harlem on my mind: Geoffrey Canada United Kingdom/USA/The
Supervising Sound reporters Netherlands/Germany 2010
superpower: a corrupt finance industry
Editor Victor Gojcaj
{Inside Job), outdated vote districting Not that Guggenheim doesn’t Certificate: not submitted 73m
MarkP.Stoeckinger groundman
Stunt Co-ordinator Maxx Hennard {Gerrymandering), wasteful also poke a little fun at his fellow
Gary Rowell tower operator
environmental policy {Cool It) and a Americans: his use of the statistical
Technical Advisers Joe Coyle
Terry Forson CEO golfer 1 broken education system {Waiting for cliche thatAmericans trail other
Jess Knowiton Dihlon McManne ""Superman'*), The director of Waiting, nations in maths is leavened with CREDITS Additional Music
Eli Hardie Howes
Technical Consultant CEO golfer 2 Davis Guggenheim, previously directed the students’ one curious success - Directed by
Gunnarbskarsson
Jon Hosfeld Charles Van Eman AfTiy Handle
Soundtrack
a movie tracking state-school teachers they’re number one in confidence
CEO golfer 3 Producers “Intro" - Eli Hardie
Joshua Elijah Reese {The First Year, 2001) but made his name (cue disastrous stunt-bike footage). Amy Hardie
CAST Howes; "Little Bitty
young engineer by turning the global-warming lecture And the segments with the students George Chignell Pretty Things" -
Denzel Washington Tom Stoviak Doug Block
Frank Barnes
An Inconvenient Truth into a wonky and their families can be deeply Thurston Harris; "Ice
news reporter 5 LoriCheatle
Breaker". “Last Song" -
Chris Pine Ellen Gamble hit in 2006. Here he capably presents affecting: when a mother expresses Filmed by Gunnar Cskarsson; “Ali
Colson
Will news reporter 6 a story of failing schools and striving her mixed feelings about her child Amy Hardie Baba" -Treasure Isle
Rosario Dawson Shelby Camptella Film Editor
students that’s engaging and well going away to school, it encapsulates SourKd Designer
Connie Hooper news reporter 7 Ling Lee
paced, but his incomplete account the tug of of family versus the benefits Gunnar Oskarsson
Kevin Dunn John D. Leonard Dubbing Mixer
(Salvin Brewster man 1 simplifies the debate over the issues of educational advancement. ©Amy Hardie Paul McFadden
Ethan Suplee Thomas Riley to the point of rendering the movie But Guggenheim’s grasp of rhetoric Productions
Dewey Brewster man 2 Production Companies
an unreliable voice. is often clumsy, as with the awkward WITH
Kevin Corrigan Jeremiah Fragale An Amy Hardie/F^ssion
Inspector Werner cop Interspersed with snappy animated finally-we-have-a-title feel to the Pictunes/Hardworking Amy Hardie
Lew Temple Jason McCune summaries of American education Superman tag (based on extraordinary Movies co-production Professor Mark Solms
Ned radar gun cop with VPRO. More4.
policy, Guggenheim’s film focuses Harlem educator Geoffrey Canada’s Claudia Goncalves
Kevin Chapman Adrienne Wehr ZDF/Arte PhyllidaAnamaire
Bunny on five children and their parents, childhood wish for a way of sweeping
ne\A/s reporter 8 Supported by the Dr Amy Mindell
T.J. Miller Adam Kroloff and the efforts of one city schools away life’s problems) and a pointless National Lottery through Dr Amie Mindell
Gilleece spokesperson
railroad superintendent to make reforms. use of Chuck Yeager (fixing schools Scottish Screen
Jessy Schram Jake Andolina Executive Producers
Darcy
The kids are extremely cute in the is as hard as breaking the sound barrier In Colour
evacuation police officer for Channel Four: [1.78:1]
David Warshofsky Jarrod DiGiorgi main, their mothers inspiringly because... nobody thought it could be Tabitha Jackson
Judd Stewart control room staff 1 dedicated and quietly compelling; done!). Likewise the film’s suspenseful for VPRO: Distributor
Andy Umberger Tami Dixon the reforming official, one Michelle climax - showing the five students in Barbara Truyen Cinef ile World
Janeway control room staff 2 for Scottish Screen:
izabeth Mathis Sean Derry
Rhee of Washington DC (who has their respective cities waiting in bingo-
Robbie Allen UK television version
Nicole room staff 3
control since resigned), is a clean-the-house like gym settings to find out if they’ve for ZDF/Arte: title
Meagan Tandy Amy Arce pragmatist intended to throw the won a place at a charter school - yields Doris Hepp Dangerous Dreams
Maya TV reporter iorPOV.
Dylan L Bruce absurdities of bloated bureaucracy mixed feelings. On the one hand, we Mone4 tx 19 October
Matt Cates Simon Kilmurry 2010
Michael Colson state trooper
and entrenched teachers’ unions feel their hope, fear, anger and pain - Camera
Jeff Hochendoner Rick Chambers into relief. Because according to and above all the cruel indignity and Amy Hardie US television version
Clark news reporter 1 Ian Dodds
Guggenheim, “the most intractable absurdity of such a process. But on the title
Ryan Ahem Chase Ellison Hardie family The Edge of Dreaming
Ryan Scott problem in all of education” - other hand, Guggenheim tilts their
Animator
teenage witness PBS tx 24 August 2010
Christopher Lee Juan M. Fernandez apparently more than poverty or hardship perilously towards the hoary Cameron Duguid
Philips white shirt reporter government budgets - is the teachers’ form of a contest documentary: again, Additional/
Baker Steven Gonzales Supervising Editors
union, which he claims gives tenure narrative trumps all.
Kevin McClatchy another news reporter Colin Monie
Hoffman Rick Rader to the incompetent and stymies As with so many films about parents Michael Culyba
Toni Saladna train employee witness extensive change. But Guggenheim’s and children. Waiting will strike a chord
Galvin’s assistant early Steel one-prong argument raises suspicion, with several constituencies. But despite
Patrick F. McDade female reporter in
Captain Allen helicopter
as does his unquestioning endorsement Guggenheim’s opening claim to have
Bill Laing Warren Sweeney of Bush-instituted national testing conflicted feelings about sending his
red truck driver press representative and the ‘charter’ schools that are own kids to private schools, his film
Scott A. Martin Stephen Monroe
presented as the ideal replacement still has the long, winding feel of
Brewster dispatcher Taylor
forabysmal state schools. It’s telling someone agreeing, slowly but surely,
Richard Peizman
Devereaux
Lissa Brennan
truck driver
Stephen Nelson
reporter at Keating
that he reaches for clips from The with himself. ^ Nicolas Rapold
Simpsons and School ofRockv^hen Credits for this film were unavailable
diner waitress summit
Barry Ben Sr putting down the teachers’ unions, at the time of going to press and will
Rndlay police officer DoltyDigital/DTS/ securing his audience with the easy dig. be published in the February issue
Heather Leigh SDDS
Findlay reporter Cokxjr/Prints ty
Carla Bianco DeLuxe SYNOPSIS A documentary about public (state) education in the US. As director
horse trailer owner [2.35:1] Davis Guggenheim takes his children to private schools, he expresses concern
Keith Michael Gregory
over the public schools he passes on the way. He introduces five children
hazmat worker Distributor
L. Derek Leonidoff 20th Century Fox
(Anthony, Daisy, Francisco, Bianca and Emily) who are hoping to win coveted
FRA official International (UK) places at charter schools in Washington DC, Los Angeles and New York.
Aisha Hinds
The film introduces educators such as Harlem teacher Geoffrey Canada, who
railway safety campaign 8,855 ft +7 frames
co-ordinator
observes how minority students especially begin to fail after fifth grade, and
Khalio Walker Michelle Rhee, superintendent of schools in Washington DC and an ambitious
Gilda Estelle Chestney reformer of entrenched bureaucracy. It is suggested that abuses of teachers’ tenure
Kam Bott
are a major obstacle to reforming education in schools. The charter schools are
Kevin Bott
Max Schuler presented as a possible solution but these offer only limited places for applicants.
hero kids Rhee’s reforms are stymied by the teachers’ union.
Gretchen Bluemie
The film shows that whereas America’s education system used to lead the world,
Mane, checkout girl
Diane Jonardi
now it cannot meet demand for college-ready students; nevertheless, pupils at the
Mrs Hermann, old lady national KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) charter schools do achieve top scores,
Corey Parker Robinson asdo those at Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem school.
lead officer 1
Anthony, Daisy, Francisco, Bianca and Emily wait to hear whether they have
Christopher Stadulis
won places at the charter schools in their areas. Only two gain admission. ‘The Edge of Dreaming’
police officer 2

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 89 1
Films

CREDITS UPDATE
An Ordinaty Execution RED
France 2009 USA 2010
Certificate 12A 105m 8s Certificate 12A 110m59s

CREDITS Dani^le Vbarin Gilles Gaston-Dreyfus CREDITS TriciaWood Art Directors Soundtrack Jason Giuliano
Make-up Beria Canadian; Brandt (Gordon 'Home in Your Heart” - Endercott
A film by Romania Unit; Anne Benoit Directed by
Robin (Sook New Orleans Unit: Solomon Burke: “I Want Alec Rayme
Marc Dugain Violeta Marinescu Alexandra
Robert Schwentke
New Orleans Unit: Kelly Curley to Be Loved" - Muddy cop at intersection
I

Produced by Stalin Make-up Marie Payen Produced by Lisa Mae Fincannon Set Designers Waters; "Doctor My Lawrence Turner
Jean-Louis Uvi Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Created by patient Directors of Tucker Doherty Eyes” - Jackson retirement home
Screenplay/ Nathalie Tissier Amandine Dewasmes Mark V^hradian Photography Russell Moore Browne; “Sunrise in assassin
I

Adaptation/Dialogue Screenplay
Key Special Make-up patient 2nd Unit; New Orleans Unit: China" - Scott Seegert: Emily Kuroda
Marc Dugain Effects R4gis Rom4te Jon Hoeber David Herrington Dave Kelsey "Emergency” from Two Mrs Chan
based on his novel Une Fabrice Herbet Doctor Gregoriev
Erich Hoeber
New Orleans 2nd Unit; Set Decorators Weeks Notice- John Joe Chrest
Ex^ution ordinaire Special Make-up Gilles S^l Based on the graphic Gary Capo Cal Loucks Powell: “Back in the retirement home
Director of novel by Warren Ellis.
Effects Uncle Anton Camera Operators New Orleans Unit: Saddle” - Aerosmith: detective
Ptx)tography St^phaneChauvet Vincent Ozanon Cully Hamner A; Thomas Lappin AliceBaker "Carry on Christmas"; Justine Wachsberger
Yves Angelo Director of -The
Key Hair Stylist Horatiu Bob B: Tim Merkel Property Masters "Cissy Strut” nurse
Editor
Jean-Jacques Puchu militiamen
Photography 2nd Unit Deryck Blake Meters: "Remember” - Tara Yelland
Fabrice Rouaud Lapeyrade Denis Falgoux Florian Ballhaus
A: Perry Hoffman 2nd Unit: The George Kash/John Wilkes’ secretary
Art Director Editor
Stalin Hair Created by Kremlin secretary B; Mark Willis Ron Hewitt Marmora Band: “Calling Audrey Wasilewski
Yves Fournier
Christina OIhund-Lago Agnieszka Kasprzak Thom Noble New Orleans 2nd Unit New Orleans Unit: All Units to Broccolino” businesswoman
Production Designer - Calibro 35 (Massimo
Titles nursing secretary Michael Applebaum Michael S. Martin Dmitry Chepovetsky
©FComme Film. Def2Shoot: Fabienne Luchetti Alec Hammond Jerry M. Jacob New Orleans 2nd Unit: Martellotta. Luca Matthew Olver
StudioCanal. France 3 FredRoz administrator’s
Music JeffTufano John Gathright Cavina. Enrico Gabrielli. surveillance techs
Cinema Soundtrack secretary
Christophe Beck Steadicam Operator Construction Fabio Ronadinini, Jason Weinberg
Production Companies
"Hymne National de Frangois Raffenaud New Orleans Unit; Co-ordinators TommasoColliva) lead CIA tactical officer
F Comme Film presents ©Summit
Russie"- Red Army prison governor Andrew Rowlands John MacKenzie Sound Designer Tony DeSantis
an F Comme Film. Choir; ‘1201710 Alain Stem Entertainment. LLC
Gaffers New Orleans Unit: Jon Title security chief
StudioCanal. France 3 Production Companies Sound Mixers
Symphonic Op.ll2 ‘The Malenkov Franco Tata Jason Perlander GregBryk
Cinema co-production Year 1917; I II Aurora" by Valentin Popescu
Summit Entertainment 2nd Unit: Costume Designer Glen Gauthier firefighter

Dmitri Shostakovich -
with the participation of presents a di
Bolchakov Michael Hall Susan Lyall 2nd Unit; NeilWhiteley
Canal+.TFSStar. Bonaventura Pictures New Orleans Unit: Costume Supervisors John Thompson
MarissJansons. Sophie Pincemaille FBI commander
France Televisions in
Becue production Andy Ryan New Orleans Unit:
Bayerischen Rundfunk Nathalie Roslyn Hanchard Robert Morse
association with
Symphony Orchestra: guards
A Robert Schwentke New Orleans 2nd Unit: New Orleans Unit: Paul Ledford interrogator
Cin6mage 3 and with “Concerto N.2 pour Miglen Mirtchev
film
Michael B. McLaughlin Alison L. Parker New Orleans 2nd Unit Josh Peace
the support of La Region Executive Producers
piano et orchestra St^phane Alexandre Key Grips Make-up Department Richard Schexnayder interrogation
Ile-de-France Gregory Noveck Rico Ernerson Heads Sound Re-recording
op.l02” by Dmitri arresting police officers surveillance tech
In partnership with Jake Myers
Shostakovich - Vladimir Airy Routier 2nd Unit: Jordan Samuel Mixers Michelle Nolden
Centre national du Krainev (piano);
Co-producer Michael O'Connor New Orleans 2nd Unit: Michael Minkler Michelle Cooper
police officer in car
cinema et de I'lmage David Ready
“Adagio" from Thierry Hancisse New Orleans Unit: Paige Reeves Tony Lambert i Jake Goodman
anim^e Associate Producer Supervising Sound
“Concerto pour Piano et trades unionist Charlie Marroquin Key Make-up Cooper’s son
Executive Producers Misha Skoric
Orchestre No.23 K.488 Marcel Horobet New Orleans 2nd Unit: Patricia Keighran Editor Tess Goodman
Julie Salvador Unit Production
en La Majeur" by cook Kenneth Coblentz 2nd Unit: David McMoyler CkKiperis daughter
Romania Unit; Wolfgang Amadeus Jean-Frangois Elbeig
Managers Visual Effects Mario G. Cacioppo Stunt Co-ordinators Desiree Beausoleil
Atlantis Films Whitney Brown
Mozart - Wilhelm Professor (Chomsky Supervisor Hair Department Paul Jennings security woman
Ion Marinescu
Kempff. Bamberg
le
New Orleans Unit: James Madigan Heads Toronto: Laura De Carteret
Russia Unit; Edith LeBlanc
Symphony Orchestra: Dolby Digital/DTS Producer: Jennifer O'Halloran Jamie Jones fundraiser greeter
Fibr Film Production Production Supervisor
“Clair delune" by In Colour Bernardo Jaunegui New Orleans 2nd Unit: Fight Co-ordinator Jonathan Llc^ Walker
Anton Belin
Claude Debussy - [L85:l]
New Orleans Unit: Visual Effects/Digital Yolanda Mercadel Buster Reeves Agent Burbacher
Marina Diachenko Marjorie Ergas
Florence Magri; "II Pleut Subtitles Animation by Key Hair Murray McRae
Production Managers Production
sur la route”- Deprince CIS Vancouver Patricia Medina speaker
Christophe Jeauffroy Co-ordinators Visual Effects by 2nd Unit:
CAST intro
Cindy Dukoff
etson Orchestre; "The Distributor
Romania Unit; Gadfly/LeTaon"by Verve Pictures
Stefan Steen
Zotc Studios Kelly Shanks Bruce Willis banquet guest
Marius Bratu Dmitri Shostakovich - 2nd Unit: Radium Main/End Titles Frank Moses Thomas Mitchell
Post-production Shelley A. Boylen Morgan Freeman
Orchestre Tsaikovski; 9,462 ft +0fr^es Pixel Liberation Front Designed by lone agent
Supervisors
“Moderato" from
New Orleans Unit: Saints LA Picture Mill Joe Matheson Bernadette Couture
Christelle Didier
“Concerto pour French theatrical title
Jennifer Ray Key Special Effects Main Titles Designer John Malkovich agent
GuyCourtecuisse Violoncelle et Orchestre Une execution New Orleans 2nd Unit: Marcus Rait IrisAzadi Marvin Bo^ Chavis Brown
Assistant Directors Bernadette J. Gonzales End Titles Typography Helen Mirren
No.l 0p.l07" by Dmitri ordinaire 2nd Unit: agent
1st: Patnck Armisen Production
Shostakovich - Heinrich Mike Innanen Scarlet Letters Victoria Aaron Khon
2nd: Nathalie D6pos6
Schiff, Bavarian Radio
Accountant Special Effects Additional Music Karl Urban agent
Romania Unit Symphony Orchestra; M. Ross Michaels
Co-ordinators Mark Kilian William Cooper George Kash
Daniel Barbulescu Location Managers Mary-Louise Parker
“Symphonie No. 27 in C Laird McMurray Music Supervisor Bob Reeves
Mihai Niculescu Marty Dejczak Sarah Ross
minor Op.85: Adagio" II New Orleans Unit: Julianne Jordan John Marmora
Script Supervisor
by Nikolai Miaskovsky
New Orleans Unit: Bnnk
Jeff Brian Cox Leo Sullivan
Lydia Bigard David Ross McCarty Ivan Simonov
Sound Recordist 2nd Unit Special Ron Johnston
Casting Post-production Julian McMahon
Pierre Garnet Effects Supervisor Mark Ferguson
Tatiana Vialle Supervisor Robert Stanton
Sound Mixer RoccoLarizza John MacLeod
Constance Demontcy Jean-Pierre LaForce
Sara Romilly Additional Editor Rebecca Pidgeon Anthony Marmora
Steadicam Operator Supervising Sound 2nd Unit Director Matt Diezel (Cynthia Wilkes Steve McDade
Pierre-Hugues Galien Editor
Gary Capo Ernest Borgnine Lenny Solomon
Gaffer Assistant Directors Henry, the records
Sylvain Malbrant Bob DeAngelis
Rachid Madaoui Script Historical
1st: Andrew Robinson keeper Valerie Winn
Key Grip Consultant 1st: Myron Hoffert James Remar band members
HerveRousset Samuel Blumenfeld 2nd; Grant Lucibello Gabriel Singer
Visual Effects
Film Extracts
2nd Unit Richard Dreyfuss Dolby Digital/DTS/
Def2shoot The Spoilers (1942) 1st: Simon Board Alexander Dunning Colour by
Art Director 2nd; Aric Dupere Heidi Von Palleske DeLuxe
Romania Unit: New Orleans Unit woman neighbour [235:1]
Rentea
lulian
CAST 2nd: Steve Battaglia Jefferson Brown
Set Decorator Andr6 Dussollier New Orleans 2nd Unit Fred Distributor
Clementine Marchand 1st: Batou Chandler ChrisOwens
Stalin El Entertainment UK
Properties Marina Hands 2nd; Caroline O'Brien hanged man
Bernard Bridon Anna 2nd: Sherman Shelton Jaqueline Fleming 9,989 ft -r-3 frames
Construction Manager Edouard Baer Script Supervisors Mama
Angelo Zamparutti Vassili Susie Marucci Randy Wade Kelley
Costume Designer Denis Podalyd^ 2nd Unit; paramedic
Jackie Budin concierge R. Emerson John
Costumes Tom Novembre New Orleans 2nd Unit:
Romania Unit; hospital administrator Sam Sullivan
Victoria Dragomir Gr^ory Gadebois Casting John Malkovich
Key Make-up consultant Deborah Aquila

90 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
 NEW y€EE
EILM
SCHOOL
AC/IEEMT
AND OF FILM ACTING
ONE-YEAR CONSERVATORY PROGRAMS
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SHORT-TERM HANDS-ON INTENSIVE TOTAL IMMERSION WORKSHOPS ALSO AVAILABLE YEAR-ROUND

In the first year,

each student writes,

shoots, directs, and
edits 8 films in
the most intensive
hands-on program
in the worid
and works on
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additionai fiims.

+1-212-674-4300 • WWW.NYFA.EDU
16mm 35mm RED ON Camera Hi-Def Super 16mm
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All credits and degrees are solely granted by the New York Film Academy California.
All workshops are solely owned and operated by the New York Film Academy and such workshops are not affiliated with Universal Studios.
 DVDs
CLOSE-UP

Found guilty
Marcel Ophuls'sfilm about the death camps returns to the building
from which she was snatched. won’t I

Klaus Barbie poses profound describe the sequence in detail, but the

moral questions about war question it raises is what any one of us

and guilt, writes Nick James
Hotel Terminus: The Ufe and
Times of Kiaus Barbie
Marcel Ophuls; Germany/France 1988;
Icarus Films/Region 1; 267 minutes;
Aspect Ratio 4:3; Features: booklet
This remarkable audiovisual dossier
ostensibly a talking-heads marathon
about the background to the trial of
Klaus Barbie, the ‘Butcher of Lyon’.
As the head of the city’s Gestapo from
1942-44, Barbie was responsible for many
atrocities - including the torture and
murder of resistance hero Jean Moulin -
and yet he was allowed by the Allies to
escape justice for 40 years until his
extradition from Bolivia to France in 1983
and his trial in Lyon the following year.
However, this gradual unpeeling of the
layers of complicity that were wrapped
like tissue paper around Barbie is merely
the pretext for a deep intellectual delving
into the moral unease that surrounds the
most fundamental questions of personal
guilt arising out of World War II.
first saw ‘Hotel Terminus’ at the
I For myself, the heroic group that
London Film Festival in the late 1980s.
Then it seemed a contemporary work;
now it’s more like a time machine from
an age when every person interviewed,
no matter how much they had to hide
or how mendacious they were, seems
to feel a responsibility to the truth - landmark documentary ‘The Sorrow and
even when they’re lying. Watching it
now, you realise that there really was
once a world without spin. Ophuls can
would have done had we been faced with
the moral dilemmas rife in occupied and
Vichy France. It’s a more fundamental
question for westerners now - in the
midst of revelations about the behaviour
of British and American servicemen in
Iraq - than what one might have done
had one been born in Germany at the
wrong time (that cultural psychosis -
is so carefully imagined in Michael
Haneke’s ‘The White Ribbon’ - seems
to have been too damningly powerful
for almost anyone to escape). Any
specific set of cultural circumstances
is impossible to repeat, but the French
circumstances produced complex
responses to the threat of terror and
intimidation that seem more ‘human’,
and therefore more available to analogy.
As children, many of us who grew
up in the post-war West fantasised
about the war. Popular culture was
full of the romanticised exploits of
our parents’ generation, from War
Picture Library comics to Airfix kits
of Spitfiresand Messerschmitts, to
war movies such as ‘The Longest Day’
(1962) and ‘633 Squadron’ (1964).
appealed the most in these schoolboy
games - no doubt for trivial or romantic
reasons - was the French Resistance.
In the immediate aftermath of the war
the idea of the Resistance was crucial for
French morale. However, Marcel Ophuls’s
the Pity’ (1969) - which makes a kind of
diptych about the occupation in France
with ‘Hotel Terminus’ - is one of the key

quiz aUS State Department official or
a former US intelligence officer and get
either straight answers of utter candour
or straight answers of utter cant.
you don’t get are the bland locutions of
cynical stonewalling and blindsiding that
the most recent era of western adventurist
politics has left as its legacy.
The film shows complete respect for
the viewer’s intelligence, plunging you
documents that undermined the myth
of a general French resistance. Most of
the population were accepting of the
What status quo and the Resistance did not
become a significant force until the
Germans demanded forced French
labour for its industries. Only then did
droves of young men flee to the hills in
search of protection and a cause.
one moment in ‘The Sorrow’, Ophuls
In

straight in with a still image of Barbie into a vicious splenetic rage. In terms I eponymous resistance-heroine sut^ect notes that it was people on the fringes

and then a cut to one of his cordial of subtle character analysis, the film’s I
of Claude Berri’s 1997 drama. One man of society, the loners and outcasts, who
German neighbours from Bolivia I
nearest literary achievement would be I
who escaped Barbie by pretending he resisted from the start, not those with
recalling with incredulityhow Barbie I
Gitta Sereny’s VUbert Speer: His Battle I
didn’t understand German was the vested interests - an observation that
(then renamed Altmann) got mad at I with Truth’. There is a cameo appearance I
linguist MichelThomas. In this context should give any one of us pause to
any slur on the name of his long-dead I
from Claude Lanzmann, maker of the I these are the good guys. But Ophuls, an wonder how we ourselves would have
Fuhrer, and then another cut takes I
landmark holocaust 1985 documentary I
almost magical interlocutor, is seemingly behaved. By the end of ‘The Sorrow and
you to a billiard room in Lyon, where i
‘Shoahl And it’s remarkable how many I
sympathetic to every interviewee, no the Pity’ we are only too aware of the
various patrons describe what Barbie’s I sul^ects of other films turn up - for i
matter what their political persuasion. accommodations that gave people’s lives
trial means to them. Over the next four I
instance, the slippery anti-colonialist I
Yet he’s also unafraid of asking the most a sense of normality and convenience.
hours and more, there’s no spoon-feeding I
lawyer Jacqes Verges, sul^ect of Barbet I pointed questions. He’s no purist, though; In ‘Hotel Terminus’, Ophuls uses his

of context, you have to put the puzzle I Schroeder’s 2007 documentary ‘L’Avocat I he doesn’t hesitate to help those on the extraordinary skills as, yes, an
together yourself. I
de la terreur; and Lucie Aubrac, the i
brink of unthinking confession by offering interrogator to build from the earlier
And what a puzzle. Barbie, to the I the word they’re grasping for They’re film’s platform of moral self-doubt and
several friends who never saw him
what we might call his professional
in
I
No part of any film I almost always grateful.
No part of any film I’ve seen has stayed
present us with a parcel of plutocrats
as many shades of sideways complicity
in

context, was a kind, caring, jolly I

I’veseen has stayed I
with me quite as indelibly as the final with Barbie as can be imagined. “It was
and affectionate friend or relative.
with me as indelibly scenes of this documentary, in which one 40 years ago," is the constant refrain
'

Victims of his torture regime recall I

of the very few children of the 44 from of offered as a reason to forget. But
a small, calm man who would burst I as the final scenes the Izieu orphanage whom Barbie sent to fortunately this film is unforgettable.

92 Sight & Sound January 2011

I |
 NEW RELEASES
Animation Express
Canada 1984-2009; Image Entertainment
(US)/National Film Board of Canada
(Canada); Region-free Blu-ray/NTSC DVD;
221 minutes (DVD)/333 minutes (Blu-ray);
Features: onscreen notes
Films: Following the near-collapse of
the great animation studios of Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union
in the early 1990s, and Channel 4’s
scaling-down of its support for the
medium not long after, Canada remains
one of the few countries that continue
to subsidiseanimation as a vehicle for
personal expression. This compilation
of recent National Film Board work
(aside from Ishu Patel’s Paradise,
everything dates from 2004-09)
showcases its range: with 26 titles
on the DVD and 39 on the Blu-ray,
it’s an initially bewildering cornucopia
of styles, subjects and techniques.
Highlights include Chris Lavis and
Maciek Szczerbowski’s eerie stop-
motion Madame Tutli-Putli (already
anthologised on Cinema t6’s World
Short Filmshut doubly effective in
high-definition), Cordell Barker’s
maniacally inventive Runaway, Claude
Barras’s Tim Burtonesque gothic fantasy
SainteBarhe, Nicolas Brault’s silhouetted
(but strikingly un-Reiniger-like) African
folktale Hungu, Claude Cloutier’s
delightfully subversive Sleeping Betty,
Iriz Paabo’s Ha’aki, a near-abstract paean
to Canadian hockey, and Janet Perlman’s
affectionate tribute to 1950s sci-fi
Invasion of the Space Lobsters. They don’t
all work Pimp My
as well (the parodic
Boat overstays its welcome beyond its
initial joke, while the ambitious but
tonally uneven Ryan was handicapped
by the death of its subject, animator
Ryan Larkin, during production) but the
quality threshold is gratifyingly high.
Disc: The transfers are mostly state-of-
the art, the vast majority presented in
native high-definition on the Blu-ray
and benefiting enormously from the
additional detail. The menus offer
multiple points of access (title, theme,
director). Each film also gets a brief
onscreen programme note, though
would have been more convenient had
these been supplied in printed form. (MB)
Chaplin at Keystone
Charles Chaplin, Henry Lehrman, Mack
Sennett, Mabel Normand et al; US 1914;
BFI/Region 2; Certificate U; 561 minutes;
Aspect Ratio 1.33:1; Features: 1916
homage to Chaplin, documentary, tour of
Keystone locations, stills gallery, booklet
Films: Not many of us would still hold
Chaplin up as the greatest filmmaker
ever, as critics commonly once did.
(At the Brussels World Fair in 1958,
he was tallied up by more than a
hundred historians as Number One,
with almost double the votes of the
runner-up - Eisenstein.) Like several
‘classic’ figures, Chaplin got decades of
due for establishing an entire cultural
paradigm, but then faded from our
thoughts as subtler contemporaries and
successors (in this case Keaton) gained
attention and stole his long-term
thunder. It seems unarguable that by
booklet, complete with teeming
production trivia on every short,
including the exact day each was filmed
and released, is indispensable. The set
was produced in an international
collaboration between the BFI, Lobster
Films in France, the Cineteca Bologna
and the UCLA, and is also available
from Flicker Alley in the US. (MA)
D’Aitagnan’s Daughter
Bertrand Tavernier; France 1994;
Second Sight/Region 2; Certificate 15;
125 minutes; Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
Film:Though superficially a comic,
swordplay-packed homage to the
swashbuckling classics of Tavernier’s
youth (not to mention the grizzled
one-last-quest of Ford’s She Wore a
Yellow Ribbon), this handsomely
mounted Dumas sequel, in which the
energetic Sophie Marceau enlists the
help of her father’s ageing musketeers to
D’Aitagnan’s Daughter Tavernier’s foil a plot against the young Louis XIV,
handsome Dumas sequel bears traces bears visible traces of the director’s
favoured themes. The pains of mortality
of his favoured themes. The pains of and paternity intrude reliably,
humorously disguised as Philippe
mortality and paternity intrude reliably Noiret’s exasperation at his aching
bones and headstrong, long-unseen
child (like a comic riposte to the dark
this date Keaton ages gracefully and don’t know at first what to make of doings of The Passion ofBeatrice). It’s an
with agile invention, while Chaplin him). Modern man’s most totemic figure enjoyable and ambitious if uneven mix
remains the iconic but sentimental next to Christ thus installed, Chaplin of farce, historical drama and action
artefact of both the silent era and the didn’t rely on the character completely adventure, though the ambling talky
first mid-century years of film-culture at Keystone - many of the one- and interludes of D’Artagnan’s nostalgic
cinephilia. But that’s by one measure, a him tripping through
two-reelers have cohort slow the pace of the narrative
measure that supposes all cinema exists tumbledown comedy plots as a drunken somewhat. The extended swordplay
at once to the exclusion of a vitally aristocrat or a ‘Dutch’ dandy or even, in scenes delight with their emphasis
important parameter: history. Chaplin The Masquerader, a version of himself, on skill over athleticism, even when
is in the DNA of virtually every line of flubbing his Tramp role in a film- the panto villainy lumbers, in the code-
high and low culture that exists on the within-a-film and sneaking his way cracking comedy of Gigi Proietti’s silky
globe,and if cinema is to a large degree back into the studio dressed as a woman. Cardinal Mazarin, possibly the only
about remembrance and human time In short, an essential set and a thorough screen baddie to attempt a gag about
and timelessness, then the history that education for any moviehead. the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
Chaplin helped make and helped make Discs:The films’ restorations are all as Disc: A nifty transfer, as befits
permanent should be as crucial to us as careful and lovely as age and damage cinematographer Patrick Blossier’s
the thrill of the present-day blockbuster will allow, and Jeffrey Vance’s 56-page ravishing torch-lit chateaux and
- which will in turn become a captured galloping chevaux, but a barebones
yesterday sooner or later. release. (KS) (Sff’SJuly 1995)
Thus, the new BFI box is
essential, as it captures in your fist
it
i
the entirety of Chaplin’s seminal year
The Ghost
of 1914, from his very first film Riccardo Freda; Italy 1963; Artus Films/
appearance to his established Region 2; 91 minutes; Aspect Ratio 1.66:1;
I
status as a comedy star. Features: ‘Riccardo Freda and the
Fantastique' by Alain Petit
Thirty-five of the 36 films
Chaplin made that year Film: Riccardo Freda (1909-1999) is
are here, including a undoubtedly held in the highest regard
^
fragment of A Thief by French fans of the fantastique. Though
Catcher and excluding he mostly relished making sword-and-
the one lost entry in the sandal epics, as well as thrillers and
filmography. Her Friend westerns, Freda effectively kickstarted
the Bandit. The passage is truly the Italian exploration of gothic horror
I
I
epochal, launching from his in 1956 with I vampiri (now mostly
debut in Making a Living (as a credited to his protege Mario Bava).
1
dishevelled non-Tramp fop In 1962 he returned to the genre with
I
embroiled in a brawling hotel- Raptus, or The Horrible Secret ofDoctor
I
room scandal) to his first feature, Hichcock (the‘t’ was dropped to avoid
I Tillie's Punctured Romance, the any lawsuits from the rotund master of
1
entire industry’s first slapstick suspense). Made in 16 days to win Freda
feature. It’s like watching a a bet for a horse he coveted, this lurid
common memory born: in Kid hymn to necrophilia (still unavailable
Auto Races at Chaplin
Venice, Cal, in a quality DVD edition) starred the
introduces his Tramp, improvising extraordinary feline British actress
as a camera-hog vagrant amid a real Barbara Steele, who had “the eyes of a
crowd of race fans (most of whom Chirico painting” said the director.
Made the following year. The Ghost,
‘Tillle’s Punctured Romance’ or Lo spettro, was titled Le Spectre du
Sight & Sound |
January 2011 93
1
 DVDs
NEW RELEASES
^ Professeur Hichcock in France,
erroneously implying some kind of
sequel. Crippled Professor Hichcock
averting death by a special treatment
administered by Dr Livingstone, the
secret lover of the sick man’s alluring
wife Margaret (Steele again). When the
conniving pair bump off the professor
to obtain a substantial inheritance, the
‘dead’ man spookily keeps reappearing.
Freda piles on the plot twists and gothic
thrillswith a keen eye and atmospheric
photography, and is mercifully more
restrained with the zoom lens than
most of his Italian contemporaries.
Disc: This French edition is superior
to the US alternative, even if there is
little detail in the darkness that shrouds
the film. The English soundtrack is
available without French subtitles,
though the bonus is in French only. (DT)
Grindhouse - 2-Disc
Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray)
Planet Terror/Death Proof
Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino;
US 2007; Momentum Pictures/Region B
Blu-ray; Certificate 18; 88/86 minutes
(plus 312 minutes of features); Aspect
Ratio 16:9; Features: ‘Planet Terror’
commentary by Robert Rodriguez,
audience reactions track, faux trailers
‘Werewolf Women of the SS’,
‘Thanksgiving’, ‘Don’t’, ‘Machete’, ‘Hobo
94 Sight & Sound January 2011
1 |
with a Shotgun’), commentaries by
trailer directors Eli Roth, Rob Zombie
is
and Edgar Wright, trailer making-of
featurettes/storyboards/stills galleries,
‘Don’t’ poster with extended score
by David Arnold, Robert Rodriguez’s
‘Ten Minute Cooking School’, Robert
Rodriguez’s ‘Ten Minute Film School’,
Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez
‘New York Times’ interview, production
Comic Con
featurettes, poster galleries.
2006 featuring directors and cast of
‘Grindhouse’, uncut version of ‘Baby
It’s You’ performed by Mary Elizabeth
Winstead, introducing Zoe Bell,
Dare’ trailer, ‘Death Proof’ extended music
Film: Fixing Momentum’s lavish
rerelease of the original version
of Rodriguez and Tarantino’s faux-
exploitation double-bill with a gimlet
no doubt that this home-
eye, there’s
cinema simulacrum of their ‘recreate
the grindhouse’ experience should be
the definitive edition. Wedged back-
to-back and garnished with playfully
parodic trailers (Rob Zombie’s
exuberant Werewolf Women of the
SS is the standout in a strong field),
Rodriguez’s gore-fest and Tarantino’s
jaw-fest regain the enjoyably cramped,
quick and dirty feel the extended
standalone releases don’t deliver.
(for
Planet Terror, Rodriguez’s relentlessly
high-energy homage to Night of the
Living Dead, where survivors of a
‘Double
Cherry bomb: ‘Grindhouse’
mutant-gas attack battle their afflicted
opponents with blackly humorous
ingenuity,still gives up its pleasures
more easily than its partner, on
subsequent viewings. Who wouldn’t
cheer the splatter-drenched BBQ siege,
or the magnificent final assault of
Cherry Darling’s deadly leg? But
Tarantino’s talky, two-pronged
speed-and-slasher movie Death Proof,
in which loquacious girl party-posses
are menaced by Kurt Russell’s crash-
fetishist Stuntman Mike, looks better
with a few miles on the clock. Its
barroom tensions and back-road
revenge radiate a menace that’s
obscured by the pop-culture gabbing
first time around.
This groaning package also
engenders a second, odder variety
of reassessment, since its four hours
and more of extras provide you with
a dense production overlay for every
significant scene. No stone of shooting
detail, directorial discussion or on-set
japery is left unturned, and Rodriguez
in particular provides an educational
welter of on-set videos revealing the
special effects and stunts of his set
pieces. Informative though meaty
explanations of Death Proofs old-school
stunts and Planet Terrors baroquely
mutant makeup are, by the time
you’ve reached the audience reaction
track, the making-ofs devoted to the
trailers, and Rodriguez’s guide to
preparation of Texas BBQ ribs, you’re
feasting on a banquet of crumbs.
Rather than the fanboy fodder of
Rodriguez and Tarantino repeating
anecdotes in layer after layer of
interviews, an authoritative
documentary on the grindhouse
genre would have been a useful
counterweight to the jokey fluff
that pads out the package.
Discs: Ah, the irony of using a high-
definition format to showcase a
deliberately distressed film duo, though
under the flamboyant jumps and
scratches the movies’ colours pop from
the transfer in a satisfyingly lurid and
historically accurate fashion.Not to
mention the added irony of providing
a vast package of extras but making the
retro-styled menu pop-ups a fiddly
nightmare to navigate. (KS)
Heimat Fragments: The Women
Edgar Reitz; Germany 2006; Second
Sight/Region 2; Certificate 12; 146
minutes; Aspect Ratio 16:9 anamorphic
Film: Hermann Simon’s daughter Lulu
looks back on her life and those of her
female ancestors, relatives and the
women of the Hunsriick village of
Schabbach. If these names mean
nothing, you’ll probably find Edgar
Reitz’s fourth Heimat film borderline
baffling, as thiscomplex, layered
montage gains much of its resonance by
forging links with events in the earlier
films - though most of the footage is
effectively new, being sourced from
eight hours’ worth of deleted scenes.
Whereas the events of the earlier films
were consciously set against particular
historical epochs, these are barely
touched on here, as Reitz’s emphasis
isnow on more universal concerns,
especially the nature of memory and
how it’s preserved in the mind, family
folklore, locations, objects and film
archives. Reitz has always made great
play with the textural differences
between film stocks, and this continues
here with Lulu’s scenes being shot on
high-definition digital video, whose
patina-free sharpness emphasises the
here and now. Complaints that the end
result tends towards bittiness (scenes
rarely get more than a few minutes to
develop) are pre-addressed by the title.
Disc: Some of the older footage
occasionally shows its age, but the
transfer is otherwisefine. (MB)
Last Train Home
Canada/China/UK 2009;
Lixin Fan;
Dogwoof/ Region 2; Certificate E;
85 minutes; Aspect Ratio 16:9;
Features: trailer
Film: Lixin Fan’smoving, watchful
and stoically melancholy documentary
plucks one f^amily from China’s tide of
1 30 million migrant workers who travel
home to their distant villages only at
Chinese New Year. The human cost
of rural depopulation and rapid
industrialisation is vividly conveyed
by the two-year struggle between the
Zhang parents, who left their children
to be raised in rural Sichuan Province
 REDISCOVERY
t 6 years ago while they work in a

Guangzhou clothing factory, and their

Drive-in gothic
resentful teenage daughter Qin. Fan’s
camera shadows his reticent subjects
doggedly but invisibly, eschewing
narration and building such a careful,
patient picture of the family stresses
Kim Newman on the bizarre
(“Why are you only fifth in class?” is
the mother’s greeting to the small son charms ofthree surreal
she hardly knows) that an unexpected
psychedelic ig6os
argument feels like a grenade going
off. His breathtaking compositions Edgar Allan Poe adaptations
of the Zhangs’ long journeys and the
undulating fields of Qin’s village recall
Spirits of the Dead
Chang Yung’s eloquent landscapes
in Up the Yang tse (200 j), on which Federico Fellini/Louis Malle/Roger

Fan was associate producer. But the Vadim; UK/France/Italy 1968; Arrow i

swelling sea of migrants depicted Films/Region ABC Blu-ray/Region 2

stranded at a station, and the halting, DVD; Certificate 18; 121 minutes; Aspect

uneasy exchanges between parent Ratio 1.85:1; Features: rare Vincent Price

and alienated child show an ability voiceover narration used for the US
to convey huge social upheavals in
theatrical version: 60-page booklet
featuring Poe’s original stories, essays
microcosm in a way that’s all his own.
Disc: A good-looking transfer that by Tim Lucas and Peter Bondanella

accommodates the night fluoresence Edgar Allan Poe was neglected in America j

of city sweatshops and the vibrant green during his lifetime and for a few decades
of rice paddies. It’s wearing nothing but after his death, but his reputation grew
a trailer, but it needs nothing more. (KS) in Europe where, it has to be said, his
admirers couldn’t have had the
i

disillusioning misfortune of actually

The Magician
Ingmar Bergman; Sweden 1958; Criterion/
Region1 NTSC; 101 minutes; Aspect Ratio
1.33:1; Features: visual essay by Peter
Cowie, interviews with Bergman, booklet
with pieces by Olivier Assayas and Geoff
Andrew and an excerpt from Bergman’s
autobiography
Film: One of the less beloved wonder
Bergman oeuvre, this
cabinets in the
odd gothic puzzle might actually be one
of the great Swede’s most confessional
works, despite its roiling mix of saucy
period farce, class critique, metaphysical
horror and modernist unease. Really a
chamber piece in which an even dozen
characters, divided into three class
teams (aristocratic/bureaucratic,
servant, interloper/vagabond), face
off in a blandly opulent i qth-century
townhouse. The invaders are a small
company of travelling mesmerists-cum-
charlatans, ledby the mute Dr Vogler
(Max von Sydow) and his assistant
Aman (Ingrid Thulin), who from the
outset are obviously not what they
seem. What exactly they are is the
evasive artichoke heart of the movie, as
the troupe are confronted by the town’s
pompous local authorities (Erland
Josephson, Gunnar Bjornstrand etc),
humiliated and forced to demonstrate
either the validity of their thaumaturgic
claims or their harmlessness as
barnstorming performers, with either
conclusion being their salvation or
doom. What happens is devilishly
impossible to quantify as either baloney
or magic, but both sides of the science-
versus-‘art’ struggle seem to win and
lose, in turn.
The post-Enlightenment debate is
Bergman kernel
also, incidentally, the
Woody Allen stole for A Midsummer
Nighfs Sex Comedy (T982). Though
been easy to enjoy or dismiss The
it’s
Magician (the original title, Ansiktet,
translates as ‘The Face’) as merely a
case of Bergmanesque enigma-philia,
in reality the film is a parable, like so
meeting the notoriously self-destructive,
hostile writer In the 1960s, Poe was
unexpectedly a box-office draw
thanks to Roger (Arman's run of
Vincent Price vehicles based on his
best-known stories, and so he was a
natural for one of those multi-country,
multi-auteur portmanteau pictures that
were also in vogue. Oddly, in America,
‘Spirits of the Dead - aka ‘Histoires
’
extraordinaires’ or ‘Tales of Mystery
Imagination’ - was augmented slightly
(with an introductory Vincent Price
voiceover) and distributed by Al R the
company behind the Corman films -
where it must have puzzled the drive-in
crowds with its bizarre, fetishist, surreal
and psychedelic approach to the gothic.
The conventional wisdom about the
film is that it’s worth seeing only for
the final story, F^erico Fellini’s ‘Toby
Dammit’ (based on a Poe joke called
‘Never Bet the Devil Your Head’) with
Terence Stamp marvellous as a dissolute
English actor cracking up in Rome
while preparing to make a ‘Catholic
spaghetti western’ and rushing towards
doom and the Devil (a creepy little girl)
in a rust-brown Ferrari. It is the most
sustained, disorienting and memorable
Touche: Alain Delon as William Wilson in ‘Spirits
Pop-art fantasy: Jane Fonda (left)
of the episodes, but the other
and segments are interesting too.
Roger Vadim’s ‘Metzengerstein’
often dismissed for silliness, and does
boast odd moments such as Jane Fonda
shrieking “ooog” (she’s saying ‘Hugues’
with a French accent) - but it
be remembered that Poe wasn't being
serious in this mock-gothic tale (written
just before he embarked on a series of
psychological horrors to prove that terror
“was of the soul... not Germany’’) and
so Vadim can scarcely be faulted for
having a perverse lark with it.
plays a depraved aristo (“When
the wretch who has set this trap,
going to get two hours’ whipping and
vinegar on his wounds... I’ll pour
myself’’) who becomes obsessed
with her gentler cousin (in a casting
coup, Peter Fonda) and haunted by a
of the Dead’
as Contessa Frederique in Roger Vadim’s ‘Metzengerstein’
two The medieval setting is
spectral horse.
a pop-art fantasy which allows the star
is to parade in a succession of proto-
Barbarella outfits and play a melodrama
villain with a hint of sensitivity.
Louis Malle’s take on ‘William Wilson’,
should one of Poe's best stories and surprisingly
rarely filmed, is the most faithful of these
three to Poe’s text - though, like Vadim,
Malle changes the sex of a key character,
here to allow a part for Brigitte Bardot as
a dark, cigar-smoking cardswoman - and
uses a credible, if equally well-designed
Fonda and well-costumed historical setting.
I find Alain Delon plays Wilson, a cruel
he’s reprobate stalked by his virtuous double,
and Malle gets under the skin of Poe’s
it self-analytical tale of the compulsion to
be evil even as a man cannot live without
his better self. A floppy dummy taking
a fall from a great height hurts the film,
but Delon’s icy performance lends the
anthology its only touch of genuine horror.
Arrow’s Blu-ray offers a variety of
audio and subtitle options - the film
was shot in several languages, and the
episodes mix them from scene to scene
(jane Fonda’s lip-movements show she
spoke French or English alternately,
depending on who was playing the scene
with her; Fellini makes a joke of this
by having characters claim not to speak
Italian or English in Italian or English) -
and Price voiceover extracts from the
American cut (though this is the longer
European version). A booklet usefully
contains the three original stories and
reprints of articles by Tim Lucas and
Peter Bonadella along with a wealth of
lobby cards and posters.

Sight & Sound |

January 2011 95
1
 DVDs
NOZONE
Talkin
Harry Nilsson is remembered
morefor his misadventures
thanfor his music. Tim Lucas
puts the record straight
Who Is Harry Nilsson
(and Why Is Everybody
Talkin’ about Him?)
John Scheinfeld; US 2006-10; Lorber
Films; 117 minutes; Aspect Ratio 4:3;
Features: trailer, ‘Loneliness’ video with
Yoko Ono introduction. 97 minutes’
additional interviews and deleted scenes
In the years since his death
the age of 52, the memory of singer-
songwriter Harry Niisson has become
more synonymous with his
for misadventure than for anything he
recorded. His musicai iegacy
to no particular trend, so it
enjoyed a nostaigic revivai
disco; however, it is timeless,
same time too particuiar to the artist to
become standard. Therefore, this once
Grammy-winning, chart-topping artist
has meliowed to the point of sharing,
among music iovers, a modest sheif
with other treasured (and troubied)
cuit figures such as Scott Waiker and
Aiexander ‘Skip’ Spence. Meanwhiie,
the general public remember Niisson,
if at all, as a coked-up train wreck, the
bloated tour guide of John Lennon's
infamous 1973 ‘lost weekend’
Angeies, the man whose London
apartment piayed host (through no
fault of its owner) to the deaths of
both Mama Cass Eiiiot and Keith Moon.
it’s an ironic afteriife for a
who, as this outstanding documentary
(first screened in 2006) reminds us,
was one of the top songwriters of his
generation - The Monkees’ ‘Cuddiy Toy’
and Three Dog Night’s ‘One (Is the
Loneliest Number)’ were his - and one
of the very few tunesmithswho couid
sing hisown work better than any other
pretender. As more than one witness here
remarks, Niisson was arguably the finest
male singing voice of his generation,
blessed with choirboy soul and a range
that could raise goosefiesh, the hair on
your head, whatever you’ve got. But his
story was aiways ironic; it
on him, for exampie, that his greatest
success was with two songs he didn’t
write: Badfinger’s ‘Without You’
Neil’s ‘Everybody’s Talkin”
from ‘Midnight Cowboy’ (1969).
John Scheinfeld’s fiim teiis a bitteriy
tragic story laced with a iot of magic and
roliicking iaughter. it begins
animated still photo montages timed to
Niisson’s autobiographicai
with young Harry’s father abandoning
him and his mother when he was three.
Decades iater, the other shoe drops when
Harry waiks out on his own famiiy after
his first wife has given birth to his son
Zak. (Harry’s closest friends recaii that
96 Sight & Sound January 2011
I |
NEW RELEASES
4* many of Bergman’s (even Persona), a
-
shadow-show examining the nettlesome,
about Harry complex relationship between the
artist- filmmaker and the public. Every
step through Bergman’s narrative falls
on shaky textual ground - tricks are
plumbed but disturb, false identities are
exposed but preferred to reality, hypnotic
suggestions vent authentic secrets but
alsomanufacture outright illusions,
and vice versa.
‘magic’ affects ‘reality’
“Nothing is true,” someone says, which
is as applicable a cinematicaxiom as
any, and yet here the filmmaker’s role is
to be misunderstood, scorned, asked for
simplicities he cannot deliver. Bergman’s
film, which seems so campy and
forthright on the surface, is a carefully
calibrated morality play warning us
not to confuse art, truth, science and
metaphysics, although we are to
understand that, since all four are man-
in 1994 at made concepts, we’re prone to mistaking
one for the others. Staged and filmed
with the master’s customary mid-century
penchant Man behind the music: ‘Who is Harry Niisson (and Why is Everybody Taikin’ about Him?)' deftness and mood. The Magician is a
major work for its elliptical symbology
is tethered he spoke very iittle about his of John Lennon, which prompted him alone; there may not be a more
hasn’t heartbreaks, but the extensive musicai to become an anti-gun activist. confounding film about art anywhere.
iikepunk or clips show that he vented himseif fuiiy in What works so weii about this Disc: Typically Criterion-perfect, oozing
and at the his music.) As it happens, Zak was aiso documentary is that it aiiows the with high-contrast dazzle and
the name of Ringo Starr’s first born, and subject to speak for himseif, not oniy buttressed by extras that demonstrate
it was John Lennon (himseif abandoned through the use of autobiographicai how much fun this film is for critics -
by a father) and Ringo (iikewise a morose tapes contributed by the famiiy, but Peter Cowie’s narrated essay calls it
chiid) who iater befriended Harry, his through the generous musicai “an act of revenge” by Bergman on his
compensatory daydream of finding a new underscoring of facts and the sheer audience, and draws attention to the
famiiy by being weicomed as the fifth accumuiation of non-judgementai director’s use of recurring surnames
Beatie actuaiiy coming near enough true. witnessing. Neariy everyone spoken and Christ
(Vogler, Vergerus, etc)
Niisson’s openhearted, self- to (inciuding the Smothers Brothers, imagery throughout, prophesying as
expioratory, meianchoiic songwriting stiii smarting from the night Harry and it does the Von Sydow-starring Greatest
became perhaps the singie greatest John heckied their important comeback Stojy Ever Told made seven years later.
post-‘Pepper’ musicai influence on concert at the Troubadour) is confiicted Which all by itself lends the Christ
in Los Lennon, and Ringo became Harry’s in their assessment of the subject: he myth a new mask: the socially
best friend, the best man at his third is variously called a genius, a brute, persecuted artist. (M A) (MFB 3 10)
and finai wedding and godfather to overwheimingiy generous, ungratefui,
his chiidren - but even the Beatles a saint, a sinner, a famiiy man of many
Metropolis
proved an insufficient Band-Aid for broken famiiies. When it’s aii over, it’s ieft
musician Harry’s heartache. The seif-destructive to the viewer to sift through the evidence Lang; Germany 1927; Eureka/Masters
Fritz
streak that fueiied such iunacy as the and reach a conclusion, which uitimateiy ofCinema/Region B Blu-ray/Region 2
week-iong binges described here by is less dependent on anyone’s words than
NTSC DVD; Certificate PG; 150 minutes;
Jimmy Webb, Terry Giiiiam and a on the joy shining from the faces of aii Aspect Ratio 1.33:1; Features:
surprisingiy coy Robin Wiliiams also had who remember him. it is the ones who commentary, documentary, booklet
a fatal professional echo when Nilsson most aggravate us, who get deepest Film: The most important cinematic
followed the 1971 Grammy-sweeping under our skin, who get to us most, and resurrection of the 21st century thus
album ‘Nilsson Schmilsson’ by firing Harry Niisson was piainly one of those. this is the first time since 1927 that
far,
producer Richard Perry and stomping his Feeiing just the right iength at 117 something approximating the full
way through a much-too-quick foliow-up, minutes, the feature is suppiemented version of Fritz Lang’s sci-fi masterpiece
‘Son of Schmiisson’, notorious for its by a weaith of additionai segments has been made publicly available after
eccentric odes to groupies, oid age, death which convey a narrative curve of their multiple attempts at reconstruction
and bed-wetting, not to mention ‘You’re own. The iack of a ‘play all’ option is over the intervening decades (the most
Breaking My Heart’ (‘‘You’re tearin’ it regrettable but each of these little notorious being the colourised Giorgio
apart/So fuck you”). With suicidai topical islands achieves a depth the Moroder disco-pop version, for many
was not iost precision, it kiiied the momentum of feature can’t afford to induige. For years the easiest to find). Following the
his hit record, and began his descent exampie, in the feature, one can’t heip now well-documented discovery of a
into a maeistrom that oniy ended with but be impressed by Harry’s widow Una, poor-quality i6mm negative of Lang’s
and Fred his serendipitous 1976 meeting with Una, one of those women who attain radiance own cut in Buenos Aires in 2008, these
- the theme the Irish bakery worker who became in middie age, and by three of their are rendered redundant - and short of
his third and finai wife, with whom he had chiidren who are aiso interviewed, aii higher-quality material subsequently
six chiidren, and the 1980 assassination attractive, weii spoken, poised and coming to light (vanishingly unlikely,
insightful; they collectively provide the given that all the recent publicity failed
(in ingeniously He was blessed with feature with the happy ending Harry’s to turn anything up), this will remain
lonesome story so desperately needs. the definitive edition.
song ‘1941’)
choirboy soul and However, the deeper dose of home and Disc: Eureka’s Masters of Cinema
a range that could hearth we receive in the suppiements is offshoot clearly considers this a flagship
enough to make us feei, on Harry’s title, and has accordingly given it the
raise goosefiesh, the behalf, how leaving these ioved ones deluxe treatment. Visually, this is by
hair on your head, behind, when the tab was finaiiy due far the best domestic presentation
iife misspent, must have
for a ionely of Metropolis to date (especially on the
whatever you’ve got been its own worst circie of heii. Blu-ray, though the DVD is no slouch
either), with the familiar material
looking almost pristine. Even the
badly scratched, stained and cropped
Argentinian footage proves surprisingly
watchable, having been extensively
retouched and reframed so that all shots
match up correctly. Gottfried Huppertz’s
score (composed for the premiere) is
more Wagnerian than modernist but
a perfect fit. The story of the film, its
restoration history and its influence
on everyone from Ridley Scott to David
Fincher (via Madonna’s ‘Express Yourself’
video) is covered by an absorbing 55-
minute documentary. All the above is
also included on Kino’s parallel Region
A Blu-ray/NTSC DVD release, but the
Eureka disc throws in a lively, detail-
packed commentary by David Kalat
and Jonathan Rosenbaum which blends
production anecdotes with critical
analysis, and a 56-page booklet
including, amongst much else, Luis
Buhuel’s original review. (MB)
Mickey One
Arthur Penn;
Region 1
US 1965; Sony Classics/
NTSC; 93 minutes; Aspect Ratio
1.85:1; Features: trailer
Film: The nouvelle influences in
Bonnie and Clyde {1967) are well known,
and usually attributed to screenwriters
Robert Benton and David Newman.
But if anything, this rarely seen earlier
curio from the late Arthur Penn and star
Warren Beatty has a more pronounced
Godardian influence - alongside a big
dose of Orson Welles’ The Tria/( 196 2).
In a quirky piece of casting, Beatty is
a stand-up comic on the run from mob
debts - though it’s never entirely clear
how he racked these up. Hopping the
rails to Chicago, he assumes the identity
of a Polish hobo (‘Mickey One’ is the
short version), but he’s lured back into
the nightclubs, a moth to the spotlight.
In the film’s climax, he auditions before
an empty room and an unseen booking
agent who may be about to kill him - or
so Mickey imagines. The mood is mock-
noir, with Beatty’s narration and saxy
improvisations from Stan Getz on the
soundtrack, and Penn putting his camera
under the noses of a ravaged-looking
Franchot Tone, erstwhile Dorian Gray
Hurd Hatfield and the dazzlingly
handsome Beatty. (DP Ghislain Cloquet
fitted the film in between Le Feu follet
and Au hasard Balthazar.) The staccato
editing is too clever by half, and the
upfront symbolism (including a mute
Fujiwara Kamatari as ‘the Artist’) isn’t
subtle, but that’s part of the fascination
of this genuinely eccentric endeavour.
Disc: Released to DVD-R on the Sony
Classics imprint, Mickey One looks
exceptionally good. Order through
Sony’s website or other online retailers.
(TC)(MFB39 o)
Night of the Demon
Jacques Tourneur; UK 1957; Encore
Entertainment/Region 2; Certificate PG;
92 minutes (UK cut)/78 minutes (US cut);
Aspect Ratio 1.66:1 anamorphic; Features:
British/US versions, stills gallery, booklet
Film: One of the most viscerally effective
of all occult horror films. It says much
for Jacques Tourneur’s control of his
Metropolis The restored full version
of Fritz Lang’s sci-fi masterpiece
is the most important cinematic
resurrection of the 21st century thus far
material that the film survives such
initial drawbacks as an opening scene
featuring a distinctly rubbery monster
(notoriously imposed by producer Hal
Chester against Tourneur’s advice) and
Niall MacGinnis visually designating
himself a likely agent of Satan thanks
to the kind of facial adornment about
which Groucho Marx once quipped,
“Don’t point that beard at me, it might
go off!” But once it gets going. Night
of the Demon grips like the hold a
surreptitiously transferred runic
parchment has over its intended
victims, as Dana Andrews’s sceptical
rationalist finds that science has its
limits when demonic forces genuinely
seem to be at large. The film constantly
catches the viewer off guard, not least
when two participants in a seance burst
into a bizarre duet of ‘Cherry Ripe’ to
make visiting spirits feel welcome.
Disc: Commendably, both the British
and truncated American {Curse of the
Demon) cuts are included, and the
transfers of each are fine. A stills
gallery is the only on-disc extra, but
an excellent 24-page booklet includes
a huge amount of contextual material
and concludes with a scholarly two-
page bibliography. (MB) {MFB 288)
Paths of Glory
Stanley Kubrick: US 1957; Criterion/
Region 1 NTSC; 88 minutes; Aspect Ratio
1.66:1; Features: critic’s audio commentary,
audio interview with Kubrick, new
interviews with producers, French
TV segment about WWI incident,
booklet, theatrical trailer
Film: The most famous films
of Stanley Kubrick - from 2001
Wide Shut -can feel,
to Eyes
though they’re
spectacularly, as
made from the troubled sleep of a
compacted genius living alone at
Portrait of the artist ‘A Room and a Half
the top of the world. But Kubrick’s
earlier works have an energy and clarity
he exchanged for his famous and unique
high-concept immersiveness, and it’s
hard to look newly upon, for instance,
Paths of Glory - all bareknuckle, closed-
fisted 88 minutes of it - and not think
that maybe something was lost while
we floated in the weird oceans of imagery
Kubrick created in his last three decades.
In any context, Pat/is remains the
definitive WWI-set anti-war scorcher,
much copied but never equalled, thanks
largely to the bullet-train story cascade
(streamlined from Humphrey Cobb’s
book by Kubrick, Calder Willingham
and pulp punk Jim Thompson) and
Kubrick’s relentlessly ultra-real,
disarmingly composed images. (Really,
WWI’s trench-riven wastelands may
be the most inherently cinematic - the
most visually potent and nightmarish -
war-tom landscape ever created, as
suggested by scores of unforgettable
sequences from The Big Parade to A Very
Long Engagement) A command to take
an impossible hill, a slaughter, an
officer’s corrupt outrage, and a military
trial for a handful of randomly chosen
scapegoat ‘cowards’ to pay the price of
the mission’s failure - the story is both
modest and universal, and the film
carries no fat. Kirk Douglas, as the
ethical centre who can’t prevent the
lunacy from winding tight around
him, is so pressurised by rage and guilt
you can see his rivets popping, and it
may be the least grandiose, and most
moving, performance of his still
underrated career.
Anti-war films sometimes make
the mistake of characterising armed
conflict as just a generalised madness,
and not the product of individuals’
amorality, ambition and greed. Not
Kubrick’s - in Paths, blame is placed
with the career militarists, and politics
and the ethics applied to war, which we
often suppose complement each other,
clash and chew innocent men up like
hamburger. Beautifully utilising the
same sickeningly ornate German palace
that framed Last Year in Marienbad four
yearslater, Kubrick’s film is in your face,
from the mesmerising mid-battle no-
man’s-land tracking shots to Douglas’s
powder-keg muscularity to Timothy
Carey’s slobbering idiocy as one of the
chosen executionees.
Discs: The new transfer virtually climbs
into your lap, with vintage interviews
and commentaries that only add a
smidgen of insight to an already lean
machine - although it’s easy to love
producer James B. Harris’s story of
Carey’s mid-production self-kidnapping
and subsequent sacking. (MA) {MFB 289)
A Room and a Half
Andrei Khrzhanovsky; Russia 2009; Yume
Pictures/Region 2; Certificate 12; 130
minutes; Aspect Ratio 16:9; Features:
trailer, director interview, onstage Q&A.
printed essay. BBC radio interview
Film: The path from animation to live
action can be perilous, as can condensing
a major artist’s life and work into two
hours, but Andrei Khrzhanovsky’s
belated feature debut (he was 69 at its
premiere) is one of the most conceptually
imaginative biopics in years, drawing
and meriting comparisons with Andrei
Tarkovsky’s Mirror {igy^) and Yuri
Norstein’s Tale of Tales {igyg), Russia’s
greatest film memory-maps.
Khrzhanovsky delves deep into the
writings and reminiscences of Nobel
laureate Joseph Brodsky, turning them
into dramatised reconstructions and
superbly animated vignettes, most
memorably when the instruments of an
entire orchestra glide serenely over (and
away from) his home city of Leningrad.
Even the sea-crossing framing device is
less hoary than it seems, as the real
Brodsky died in American exile without
ever making the return trip.
Disc: A pleasant surprise from this
variable label, with a superb transfer
augmented by copious extras including
an interview with Khrzhanovsky, a post-
screening Q&A with the director and
female lead Alisa Freindlikh (hosted by
S&S contributor Ian Christie) and a
short printed essay. Two small niggles:
the BBC radio inter\dew with
Khrzhanovsky and Freindlikh is
in untranslated Russian, and the
subtitles inexplicably disappear
from the main feature for several
lines at around the 40-minute
mark. (MB) (S6^S June 2010)
Sight & Sound |
January 2011 97
1
 DVDs
TELEVISION
Colditz
Universal/BBC; UK 1972-74; 2 entertain/
Region 2; Certificate 12; 1,460 minutes;
Aspect Ratio 4:3; Features: ‘Six from
Colditz* interview, booklet
Programme: John Mills, that bastion
of war-movie integrity, played Major
Pat Reid in Guy Hamilton’s biopic
The Colditz Story (1955), recounting
in breezy fashion the British officer’s
up
captivity at Oflag IVc from 1940
to his eventual escape two years later,
all in under a hundred minutes. The
television version expands on Reid’s
personal story to provide a wartime
history of the POW castle and proves
highly persuasive even though
characters and events are all
fictionalised, with Edward Hardwicke
now playing one Tat Grant’. The
increased level of detail is such that
the opening instalments are devoted
just to introducing each of the main
characters pre-capture, with Jack
Hedley’s commanding officer,
equivalent to the role originally
played by Eric Portman, making a
particularly strong impression. The
grinding pace ably serves episodes on a
slow boil, such as the detailed two-part
recreation of Reid’s eventual escape
and the celebrated episode, spread over
several months, in which a prisoner
fakes mental illness as a ploy to get
home. At other times the leisurely
tempo really takes some getting used
to, as does the phoney courtyard set.
Discs: Both film and tape elements
have been treated extremely well
for this debut home-video release.
Disappointingly, the only supplement,
other than a booklet, is a brief 1973
interview with Reid. (SA)
Eden of the East
Production I.G/Eden of the East
Production Committee: Japan 2009;
Manga Entertainment/Region 2;
Certificate 15; 237 minutes; Aspect Ratio
1.78:1; Features: conversations between
staff and actors, promotion, TV spot
Programme: This four-hour TV
miniseries is one of the best Japanese
animations of recent years, and one
of the most accessible for anyone
new to ‘adult’ anime. (Eden has only
a small amount of sexual content but
it’s certainly not for children.) Like
much Japanese animation, Eden
animates what we’d normally think
of as live-action material, in this case
a romantic-comedy-action-thriller.
It begins on a good-naturedly
- outside the White
absurdist note
House a young woman encounters
a handsome man who has neither
memories nor clothes. There are shades
of David Fincher’s The Game (iggy) as
the man learns that he’s in a life-or-
death contest to change Japan’s destiny.
Luckily he has an unseen helper on
a mobile phone, who can seemingly
grant any wish. Doctor Who-style
daffiness and James Bondish operatics
sit comfortably with a dissident ethos
out of J.D. Salinger, in which geeks
98 S^ht & Sound Januaiy 2011
1 |
Colditz The television version expands
on Major Pat Reid’s personal story to
provide a wartime history of the POW
castle, and proves highly persuasive
and NEETs may be Japan’s salvation
or downfall. Writer-director Kamiyama
Kenji previously made a lavish TV
version of the cyberpunk franchise
Ghost in the Shell (called Ghost in the
Shell: Stand Alone Complex, available
on British DVD). Thematic overlaps
and subtle references suggest that Eden
is actually Ghosts prequel, but the new
show has far more warmth and humour.
There are only two drawbacks for
anime newcomers: the exciting climax
leaves many threads untied (setting up
two forthcoming feature films); and
the design mixes hyperreal scenery
with some disconcertingly cute
characters (drawn by female manga
artist Umino Chica) who sometimes
look half the age they’re supposed to.
Disc: As usual with anime DVDs,
the disc includes both Japanese
and dubbed soundtracks. The extras
include a 20-minute conversation
between Kamiyama and a coyly
offscreen Umino. (AO)
Leverage - Series 1
Johnworld Inc/Electric Entertainment/
TNT; US 2008-09; Icon Home
Entertainment/Region 2; Certificate 12;
605 minutes; Aspect Ratio 16:9;
Features: audio commentaries,
deleted scenes, featurettes, making-of
Programme: Gina Bellman plays the
world’s worst stage actress and a first-
class con artist in this fast-moving and
highly engaging divertissement, which
seems to have been closely modelled
on the UK series Hustle 2ind then
crossbred with Mission: Impossible and
TheA-Team with a good deal of Yankee
i explosive5.1 sound mix. Each episode
I
comes with its own audio commentary
I while the cluster of otherwise ho-hum
featurettes includes an amusing end-of-
i
season snippet in which the cast are
I
j
informed that the show has been
I
renewed for anoth er year. (S A)
i
Space 1999 - Series 1
j
I
Group 3/RAI/ITC/ITV; UK 1975-76;
I Network DVD/Blu-ray Region B;
j
Certificate PG; 1,450 minutes; Aspect
I Ratio 4:3; Features: audio and text
I
commentaries, isolated music tracks,
interviews, retrospective documentaries,
i
j
‘Clapperboard* episodes, featurettes,
I
stills galleries, interviews. Season 2
episode, trailers, booklet
I
i Programme: With its too-similar title,
I
uncluttered monochromatic designs,
I
portentous use of classical music and
I overall mood of sombre detachment,
i
this fascinating slice of sci-fi is almost
I
overwhelmed by the influence of
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
j
I
The wholehearted submission to
I
j
narrative experimentation, bordering
on incoherence at times, pays
i surprising dividends, however. Gerry
Anderson originally envisioned Space
I
I 1 999 as a sequel to his glum, highly
peculiar alien invasion drama UFO,
I
I but eventually plumped for a template
I
closer to that of Star Trek a.s Moonbase
j
Alpha travels through the cosmos.
ingenuity. Her main objective, along I
Many of the episodes authored
with fleecing vile corporate predators I
by Christopher Penfold and Johnny
of their ill-gotten gains and returning I
Byrne, the series’ principal writers,
the bounty to their innocent victims, I explore existential themes that
is the rehabilitation of the ever nimble I certainly elevate the show’s
Timothy Hutton, an ex-insurance I
intellectual aspirations, even if
investigator who has turned against I they are oc casionally let down by
his callousemployers - and to drink - I
crass execution. In addition, the
afterthey refused to pay for treatment I
production values are incredibly
that could have saved his son’s life. plush, featuring enormous sets
I
He puts together a disparate team I sumptuously shot on 3 5mm, well-
of grifters who, after a heist in the behaved supporting artists (including
I
opening story which nets them in Christopher Lee, Joan Collins and
i
excess of $30 million a piece, choose to I Peter Cushing) and - Anderson’s forte -
stay with him and ply their trade while truly impressive model effects and
I
also meting out a measure of justice. I
pyrotechnics. The wide variety of
An eager-to-please comedy-drama I pleasures onoffer, aligned with the
with a well-developed sense of how j
show’s thematic richness and
the heist genre works best - no guns, I ambition, more than compensate for
no violence, narrative stealth and i
manifest scientific implausibility,
speed in all things - it also has a i cringe-making 1970s fashions, wooden
nice line in throwaway pop-culture ; above-the-title actors and laughable
references, ranging from Doctor Who I
zero-gravity acting.
to such masters of the literary caper I Discs: This Blu-ray release offers
as Elmore Leonard and Donald j
stunning high-definition images and
Westlake. Papering over implausible I
robust sound quality. The impressive
plots with charm and tongue-in-cheek range of extras includes a second-
I
dialogue (one stratagem deploys a i
season episode (also in HD), several
“stigmata paintball gun”), it also has retrospective featurettes and hours
I
a real knack for getting in and out of i of interviews, including a fascinating
scenes with grace and considerable if fairly caustic conversation with
I
humour, which compensates for Sylvia Anderson. (SA)
I
recurring dollops of sentimentality. j
The introduction of the superb This month’s DVD releases
Mark Sheppard as Hutton’s nemesis reviewed by Sergio Angelini,
midway through the series provides Michael Atkinson, Michael
a welcome jolt to keep viewers on Brooke, Tom Charity, Andrew
their toes, leading to a well-executed Osmond, Kate Stables and
succession of double and triple bluffs
David Thompson
in the two-part season finale.
Reviews in Monthly Film Bulletin and
Disc:Shot on digital, the series looks
Sight & Sound are cited in parentheses
spick and span on DVD, with an
 Advertising Feature
Shadows of Progress
. ,WIRST
.WimST
MVE REVIEWS
Named and Shamed
Compiled by Christopher Tookey,
Matador, 335pp, paperback, £9.95,
ISBN 9781848765603
Daily Mail film critic Christopher
Tookey has spent 25 years compiling
this collection of movie reviews, which
includes some of the funniest, best and
most astute criticism ever published.
Tookey and a host of critics, from the
celebrated to the obscure, provide
feedback on some of the biggest films
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alphabetically. Many of the most
famous people of the last 100 years are
here - from Woody Allen to Andrew
Lloyd Webber. No celebrity is left
unscathed in these short one-liner
comments and paragraph reviews.
www.troubador.co.uk
Shadows of Progress:
Documentary Film in
Post-War Britain
Edited by Patrick Russell and James Piers
Taylor, BFI/Palgrave Macmillan,
448pp,
paperback, £19.99, ISBN 9781844573219
The received wisdom is that British
documentary went into decline after the
war, resurrected only by Free Cinema
and the arrival of TV documentary.
Shadows ofProgress demolishes these
assumptions, presenting instead a
complex picture of the sponsored
documentary in flux. The book explores
the reasons for the period’s critical
neglect,and addresses the production,
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documentary. It also provides career
biographies of key filmmakers of the
period,from Lindsay Anderson to
neglected figures such as John Krish,
Sarah Erulkar and Eric Marquis.
www.palgrave.com/bfi
Edith Head: The Fifty-Year
Career of Hollywood's
Greatest Costume Designer
By Jay Jorgensen, Running Press,
400pp, hardback, illustrated, £45,
ISBN 9780762438051
With over 400 films to her credit,
Edith Head ruled the costume-
design departments at Paramount
and Universal Studios for nearly
six decades, gamering 35 Oscar
nominations and winning eight -
the most won by any woman to date.
This spectacular one-of-a-kind book
surveys Head’s work in words and
pictures, bringing together rare, never-
before-seen sketches, fabric samples,
costume tests and behind-the-scenes
photos from the Edith Head archives.
www.perseusbooksgroup.com
100 Animated Feature Films
By Andrew Osmond, BFI/Palgrave
Macmillan, 252pp, hardback, £20,
ISBN 9781844573400
Twenty years ago, animated features
were widely perceived as cartoons
for children. Today, though, they
encompass an astonishing range of
films, styles and techniques. There
is the powerful adult drama of Waltz
with Bashir, the Gallic sophistication of
Belleville Rendez-Vous; the eye-popping
violence of Japan’s Akira; and the stop-
motion whimsy of Wallace & Gromit
in The Curse of the Were-Rabhit. Andrew
Osmond provides an entertaining and
illuminating guide to the endlessly
diverse field of animated features, with
entrieson 100 of the most interesting
and important animated films from
around the world, from the 1920s to
the present day.
www.palgrave.com/bfi
 Books
BOOK OF THE MONTH

Kings of comedy
Tom Charity applauds a
biographical survey ofthe big
names in USfilm comedy

Another Fine Mess: A History

of American Fiim Comedy
By Saul Austerlitz, Chicago Review Press,
528pp. £15.73, ISBN 9781556529511
Writing about comedy can feel as
rewarding as dancing about architecture
- theoretically possible, but unlikely to
keep you warm at night. Still, if comedy
can be counted a movie genre, it would
certainly be themost robust, the only
one that has never gone out of style -
the trouble being that it’s a formula with
such elastic conventions it defies that
kind of overarching analysis.
Slapstick, screwball, vaudeville,
romcom, spoof, mock-doc...
Contemplating this unruly bag of frogs,
Saul Austerlitz has taken a more
straightforward approach to the history
of the form. His book is organised as a
loosely chronological survey dedicating
a biographical essay to some 30 of the
kings (and queens) of comedy, beginning
with Chaplin and concluding, 380 pages
later, with Judd Apatow. (An epilogue
consists of nearly 100 quick sketches
of the also-rans, everyone from Abbott
and Costello to the Zucker brothers.)
It’s a strategy that irons out
complication, to be sure, but on the
whole the ‘great men of history’ approach
applies quite well here. As Austerlitz
suggests in his introduction, “The This sporting life: Bill Murray in ‘Caddyshack’, above, and Charlie Chaplin in ‘City Lights’ below
American comedy film has been an
exclusive club whose members have book’s parameters. (There’s no mention the distinction between Murray
It’s rare to find a I
in

engaged in a rollicking ongoing debate of ‘Jackass’, nor such influential British ‘Meatballs’ (1979) and in ‘Caddyshack’
commentator who
i

over what constitutes a good laugh.” TV shows as ‘Monty Python’ and ‘The I
(1980). Austerlitz is equally attentive to
Lubitsch inspires Wilder, the Coens Office’.) There could be a woman the good and no^so-great in Steve Martin
channel Sturges, Chaplin influences
can point out the President before there’s another female
I

and Ben Stiller’s busy filmographies. Best

I

almost everyone. Austerlitz invites distinction between comic star as powerful as Mae West. i
of all, however, is the chapter on Richard
us to draw up a chair and join in The essays themselves are engagingly Pryor. The movie roles never tapped the
the conversation.
Murray in ‘Meatballs* written, lightly biographical and reliably
i

I brilliance of the stand-up captured in his

In this canon, actors outnumber and in ‘Caddyshack* perceptive. Austerlitz has done the I
concert films, but even so Pryor was able
directors by a wide margin - except legwork, and if he doesn’t much care I
to derail the so-so comedy thriller ‘Silver
thatmany of the stars also had the clout for Buster Keaton’s ‘Go West’ (1925), I
Streak’ (1976) and transform it into a
and the inclination to direct their own he’s not afraid to say so (“shapeless I
stinging rebuke of the racial stereotyping
pictures. The only directors in the top and unfocussed” is his verdict). The I that had gone before.
30 list who didn’t also appear in front scholarship is sound (in one aside he Pryor’s glory days were shorter than
of the camera are Lubitsch, Wilder, mistakes ‘The Life and Death of Colonel I
most, but it’s noticeable how many of
Sturges, Altman, Apatow and the Coens. Blimp’ for ‘A Matter of Life and Death’, I the careers here peak and peter out
If there’s a glaring omission, his name is but that’s the only howler spotted).
I within a furious ten to 15-year lifespan,
Howard Hawks - but then he’s roundly If the book occasionally gets bogged as if recognition and acceptance could be
represented in the chapters on Cary down in trying to keep pace with a busy comedy’s ruin. Or maybe the recognition
Grant, Katharine Hepburn and Marilyn star’s more forgettable efforts, its was never enough - to this day, only
Monroe. Of course the screenwriters get pleasure lies in the palpable enjoyment a handful of comedies have been
the fuzzy end of the lollipop, but that’s Austerlitz takes in the best of them, nominated for the Academy Awards.
no more breaking news than the whether it’s ‘City Lights’, ‘The Shop The life cycle of a genuinely funny
preponderance of Jewish men. Around the Corner’, ‘Old School’ or comedian may be short, but Austerlitz
Only four women make the cut, none ‘Meet the Parents’. reminds us that each generation
more recent than Doris Day. That’s a He’s particularly good on the craft replenishes the pool. For every clown
brutal statistic, but from the modern era, ofcomic performance: the differences who sets his cap at Hamlet (or in Murray’s
who stakes a claim: Diane Keaton, Goldie between Bill Murray in ‘Ghostbusters’ case, Polonius), there are innumerable
Hawn, Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Roberts, (1984) and Murray in ‘Lost in Translation’ young pretenders waiting in the wings
maybe? Elaine May, if she had enjoyed (2003) are obvious and well rehearsed, ;
who can think of nothing better than to
more success. Lucille Ball probably has but it’s rare to find a commentator who I play the fool and plunge us into another
the strongest case, but TV is beyond this can point out with the same precision I fine mess.

100 Sight & Sound January 2011

1 |
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
By Celestino Deleyto and Marfa del Mar
Azcona, University of Illinois Press, 153pp,
£13.99, ISBN 9780252077616
There has been no shortage of critical
work on Alejandro Gonzalez lharritu’s
first three films. In particular Paul Julian
Smith’s lucid BFI Modern Classics
monograph on Amores pemros and a
recent co-edited volume by Frederic
Miller, Agnes Vandome and John
Me Brewster demonstrate the
fascination this Mexican-cum-
transnational director exerts over the
contemporary cinematic imagination.
Celestino Deleyto and Maria del Mar
Azeona’s insightful and well-illustrated
study is a welcome addition to the field,
tendering incisive analysis alongside
valuable contextualisation signalling
the ways in which the filmmaker picks
up and develops techniques visible in
the work of directors as diverse as
Griffith and Kurosawa.
Indeed the framing of his work
within broader currents in Mexican
cinema is one of the book’s strengths.
Instead of opting for a chronological
approach, the authors offer a series of
thematic sections: key essays examine
the scrambled narratives in each of his
filmic collaborations with screenwriter
Guillermo Arriaga and the modes in
which space is denoted through visual
vocabularies. The emotional logic of
21 Grams {looiX for instance, is
analysed through the chronological
jumps that illustrate the ways in which
Danny Boyle: In His
By Amy Raphael, Faber and Faber, 384pp,
£14.99, ISBN 9780571253869
By their very format, Faber and Faber’s
book-length director interviews
promote the director as the creative
nexus of the filmmaking process, and
directorial style as a self-evident and
definable quantity. Yet these are
assumptions easily questioned in the
case of a figure such as Danny Boyle,
who has worked across multiple genres
and collaborated with writers and
producers who can lay convincing
claim to their own auteur status. Unlike
certain other subjects of the Faber series
- David Lynch, David Cronenberg,
Krzysztof Kieslowski, Terry Gilliam -
Boyle has never been regarded as a
chin-stroking visionary with a back
catalogue firmly stamped with
unmistakable idiosyncrasies. With
nine feature-film credits as director, his
is also a relatively spare CV - albeit one
studded with titles whose timeliness,
daring or sheer unshiftable influence
have secured them uncommon pop-
culture longevity.
A worthy subject, then? Boyle
himself apparently had to be persuaded;
on her initial approach, Amy Raphael
reports,“He doesn’t know why anyone
might be interested in a book about
him.” Even once on board, he regularly
notes his discomfort with deification.
Construction of space: Gonzalez
the construction of space works to
pinpoint the fleeting moments of
happiness experienced by the characters
in the interstices of time in the film.
The car crash - a familiar trope in the
multi-protagonist film - comes in for
particularly close analysis: Amores perros
(2000) allows for the full visual impact
of the crash to pervade the film from
the outset; in 21 Grams the decision
not to show the fatal collision leaves
the accident hovering over the events
that follow like a bad smell. The
parallels with Babel (2006) - again
stories linked by a tragic accident
are teased out, with all three films
shown to be fracturing linear time,
albeit in differing ways.
Own Words
In the event, however, it’s Boyle’s very
absence of grandiosity that lends this
volume its expansiveness and vigour,
and ensures its value to fans, aspiring
filmmakers and scholars of the vagaries
of British film history.
If not wholly comfortable probing
the origins of his own creativity or the
sources of his ideas, Boyle proves a
generous and informative guide to the
nitty-gritty of filmmaking: the networks
of relationships, both carefully nurtured
and happenstance, that contribute to
each film’s genesis; the fits and starts
that afflict casting, funding and
shooting; the blessings and
catastrophes that defy all
prediction. Boyle diligently
offers credit to the behind-the-
scenes practitioners he calls
“mini-directors” - ADs,
first
cameramen, production
designers - thus not only
proving himself an endearingly
steadfast enthusiast for the
contributions of others, but also
throwing welcome light on the
nature of what they do on set.
Positivity abounds; in fact the
whole book rather contradicts critic
Manohla Dargis’ quoted observation
that “Mr Boyle is the sort of creative
Leader of the band:
Danny Boyle
Inarritu, right, directs Sean Penn in ‘21 Grams’
Although some dissenting views
are featured in the book, thereis an
evident (and at times perhaps overly
enthusiastic) admiration for Gonzalez
Inarritu’s work. The filmmaker is
constructed as a humanist, employing
interlinked macronarratives and multi-
protagonist structures as a way of
reinforcing the shared emotional
territories that bind human beings
across classand continents. The ‘look’
of the filmscomes in for particularly
interesting scrutiny. The prolific use
of the wide-angle lens in Amores perros;
- the extreme close-ups, bleached colours
and use of different filmstocks for the
three main characters of 2 j Grams; the
deployment of different shades of red
type inwhom the milk of human
kindness often seems to curdle rather
than flow.” Not only is Boyle a lover
of happy endings - who insisted on
an anti-nihilistic twist in Trainspotting
(1995) and junked an alternative
28 Days Later {2002) ending in which
Gillian Murphy’s protagonist died - but
he froths with admiration for the kitsch
blockbusters of James Cameron and the
romcoms of Richard Curtis.
precision
He may have given the world gore,
gross-out and glassings galore,
but Boyle does come across
as tremendously nice.
Still, he’s also
disarmingly willing
to detail how
things can
turn ugly. His
famously close
collaboration
to demarcate borders in Babel- all are
teased out in relation to the dominant
motifs of the films. Space in Babelis
often shown to take centre stage,
displacing the protagonists to assume
its own prominence within the
intersecting narratives; indeed
geographical and emotional borders
represent a productive trope in the
authors’ examination of this film.
Gustavo Santaolalla’s musical
scores, which work as a bridge between
different storylines in the three films,
arementioned briefly in a discussion
on Babel but his contribution is also
covered in a revelatory interview with
Gonzalez Inarritu that makes up the
final section of the book. The discussion
is far-ranging - from Latin American
fiction to the processes of shaping a
storyline in the editing room; from the
politics of living in Los Angeles to the
Mexican films the director admires.
The interview offers particular
insight into the challenges involved
in making his most recent film Biutijiil
While he presents his fourth feature
as a shift of direction, the dilemmas and
dramas of Javier Bardem’s protagonist
Uxbal don’t seem a million miles away
from those of Sean Penn’s Paul and
Benicio del Toro’s Jack in 2r Grams.
Persuasively argued and refreshingly
jargon-free, this is a book that gets you
thinking through Gonzalez Inarritu’s
temporal games without turning the
analysis into a formalistic, clinical
exercise. ^ Maria Delgado
with screenwriter John Hodge
and producer Andrew Macdonald -
designed, he says, on the “rock band role
model” of shared creative responsibility
- emerges as a union driven in no small
part by friction. More intriguing still is
Boyle’s symbiotic relationship with
Shallow Grave {igg4) and Trainspotting
Ewan McGregor, which fractured
star
when Boyle gave Leonardo DiCaprio the
lead in The Beach (2000), and is described
here in terms almost befitting a broken
romance. Also frankly dissected are the
films and elements of films that didn’t
work - whether in Boyle’s opinion,
in Raphael’s, or in that of the paying
public. Critics come into it, but in
them Boyle takes less of an interest -
his is a sincere and avid populism,
and he is not only prepared but actively
keen to alter his films according to
focus-group feedback.
Raphael is prone to the odd bout
of fangirl gush, with questions such
as: “Did you realise you were about
to rejuvenate British cinema with
your feature film debut?” On the
whole, however, she’s an informed
and thoughtful interviewer, blessed
with a subject who - whatever
your take on his films - occupies a
fascinating position, as a commercially
viable British filmmaker with no
politicised social-realist baggage
to declare. Hannah McGill
Sight & Sound |
January 2011 101
1
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 Letters

Letters are welcome, and should

he addressed to the Editor at
LETTER OF THE MONTH
Sight & Sound, BFI, 21 Stephen
Street, London WIT ILN Broadband speed
Fax: 020 7436 2327 I really enjoyed Kent Jones’s feature
Email: S&S@hfi.org.uk on The Social Network {‘Only Connect’,
S&S, November). Mulling over the
Two thumbs down movie on the bus ride home after
I was surprised by the sign-offline seeing it, I remembered a line from
in Henry K. Miller’s review of David The Magnificent Ambersons, which I
Fincher’s latest film {S&S, November). immediately looked up on my phone.
“TTie Social Networkis a classic,” wrote It goes: (in those days) “the only public

Miller, “and I can’t wait to see it again.” conveyance was the streetcar. A lady
While I share the writer’s enthusiasm could whistle to it from an upstairs
for the picture, and his impatience for window and the car would halt at once
a repeat viewing, S&S shouldn’t have any and wait for her while she shut the
truck with unhelpful, meaningless terms window, put on her hat and coat, went
such as “a classic”, unless it is to chastise downstairs, found an umbrella, told the
the sort of critics who trade in them. ‘girl’ what to have for dinner and came

Of course, it’s all about context - such
a phrase would not be out of place in
Empire magazine, or in the News ofthe
World But that’s precisely why S&S must
be vigilant about where it draws its line
in the semantic sand. It isn’t so very far
from “The Social Networkis a classic”
to ‘Tive stars!”, “Two thumbs up!” and
“If you see only one film this year...”
Ryan Gilbey
London
Romeo, Romeo
Like David Thompson (Books,
S&S, December), I too underwent a
screening of Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet
surrounded by a clutch of culturally
force-fed schoolgirls. They too were
overcome by sobbing and sighing, but
not brought on by an appreciation of
Nino Rota’s music. Rather, I suspect it
was occasioned by pubescent approval
of Leonard Whiting! My daughter, who
experienced the film on a similar trip
in the 1990s, bears me out in this!
Les Hooper
Glasgow
It’s a wonderful deal
Readers who enjoyed Joseph McBride’s
Frank Capra piece (‘Capra Before He
Became “Capraesque”’, S&S, December)
may be interested to know that two of
the films he enthuses about, The Miracle
Woman and The Bitter Tea of General Yen,
are currently available as part of a six-
DVD Region 2 box-set from UCA called
simply (and not very helpfully) Barbara
Bardin Barbara: v something your excellent LP-like cover
Stanwyck
forth from the house. Too slow for us
nowadays, because the faster we’re
carried, the less time we have to spare.”
What Welles observed in 1942 - by
way of Booth Tarkington, who wrote
the novel in 1918 - has now extended
from the transport of people to the
transport of language.
The opening of The Social Network
ison one level a scene of a very bad
date, but on the other level it’s a
conversation between the traditional
analogue pace of dialogue versus the
breathless broadband chatter of the
digital age. Mark Zuckerberg [played
by Jesse Eisenberg, right] is a DSL in
flip-flops. His girlfiiend Erica even
exclaims after the intense, rapid-fire
discourse across a bar table: “Dating
you is like dating a stairmaster!”
That scene totally defined
Zuckerberg’s character for the rest
of the film. I don’t think Zuckerberg
Stanwyck At time of writing (mid
November) it’s available via Amazon
Marketplace for under a fiver - and
the other films featured include Double
Indemnity and The Lady Evd
Louise Mulholland
By email
We are the robots
I enjoyed Kim Newman’s piece about
Metropolis {‘Remake Remodel’, S&S,
October). But while he’s right about
its on various directors, surely
influence
the film’s most profound influence on
popular culture has come via music -
design and Roxy Music-inspired headline
both brought instantly to mind. You
could make a case for Kraftwerk’s 1978
album The Man-Machine as the single
biggest influence on the electronic route
taken by pop music over the subsequent
three decades. Overtly inspired by Lang’s
film - Kraftwerk once famously referred
to themselves as “the children of Fritz
Lang and Wemher von Braun” - it
includes not just the title track but
also ‘We Are the Robots’ and, of course,
‘Metropolis’. Meanwhile their fellow
electronic-music pioneer Giorgio
Moroder went one step further, re-editing
the film to a dodgy disco score in 1984,
though by then his days as a cutting-edge
is an “asshole” or even trying to be.
It’s just that he’s running on such a
him
blistering trajectory that it robs
of reflection - a moment to weigh his
words, to consider the repercussions of
his actionson others - because to do so
would require him to slow down, an act
that you can see he’s incapable of from
producer were far behind him. Now
a Kraftwerk score for the restored
Metropolis- that’d really be something!
Tina Engstrom
By email
Memories of Tom’
Congrats on an excellent December
issue of the indispensible S&S, an
invigorating mix of the old and the new.
Having been 21 at the time, and living
in London, I was particularly interested
by the piece on Peeping Tom. I saw the
film the day it opened and was bowled
over by it - but the reviews really were
devastating. I didn’t read Tribune at
the time, but Derek Hill’s withering
comments quickly became famous. It’s
interesting, given his apparent call for
the film to be destroyed and flushed
away, that Derek (who became a good
friend; we had lunch in London in May)
was later an anti-censorship campaigner
who pioneered the concept of cinema
clubs in order to screen uncut
problematic films by directors like
Makavejev and Oshima. Interesting too
how Alex Walker famously waxed and
waned in support or otherwise of
violent films. I was in Locarno when
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre {the
original) screened there after being
banned in Britain, and Alex took up the
his fidgety contempt during his court
hearings. What mattered to him was
being ahead of the race, and that’s a
lonely place to be - unless you’re a
Winklevoss, because then you always
have your twin brother to gloat with.
Ramsey Hassan
By email
cudgels to get the ban overturned; many
years later he took entirely the opposite
tack over Fight Club when it screened in
Venice, getting on the phone to whoever
was the chief censor then and telling
him it ought not to be allowed!
There was very much a sense that
both Powell and Hitchcock - two highly
regarded, even revered British directors
(by the critical establishment of the time)
- had somehow crossed a line with
Peeping Tom and Psycho which, as your
article says, opened within a few weeks
of each other. Hitchcock’s skills as a self-
were never seen to greater
publicist
advantage than with Psycha no stills
made available, enigmatic posters,
that amazing trailer - and a campaign
demanding that “no-one is allowed
to enter the cinema after the film has
begun” (in the days of continuous
performances when people drifted in
and out). I saw the Powell film with a
minuscule audience, and queued around
the block to get into Psycho, which - not
knowing an)^hing about it beforehand
- was an experience I’ll never forget.
David Stratton
By email
Additions & corrections 3
z
December p.67 Leap Fear Cert 18, 92 m 13s 2
8,300 ft +3 frames; p.72 An Ordinary Execution, 5
Cert 1 2 A, 105m 8s, 9,462 ft +0 frames |

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